New Year Resolutions - Are you making any?

[goldfinch]

I have mixed feelings about New Year Resolutions. On one hand, I think it is good to have goals, so making a New Year Resolution is like setting a goal. On the other hand, making New Year resolutions can lead to beating ones self up and feeling like a failure when, inevitably one falls short of keeping the resolution 100% of the time. That bothered me so much, that I gave up on making realistic resolutions for years. When people would ask me about my New Year Resolutions, I would respond with something silly like "I vow that this year I will keep the camels out of my garden". Now that was a resolution I could keep!

I'm not sure why, but I am thinking about making New Year Resolutions this year and am running out of time to decide. So I am asking our wise community...Do you make New Year Resolutions or not?

[hangers]

I am making a simple one. Nothing life changing. Those are usually hard to keep. I just hope that this year we can finally get that disgusting sickening, ratty, dirty, old wallpaper down and fix up those walls in the TV room. I think maybe this year we can manage that.

I find that if I vow to make a big change, I am disappointed, so a smaller one will lift my spirits. It's a goal anyway. I have more important ones I should attend to, but not holding my breath.

[Rory]

No

[eagle]

Not really. Any goals I make are done on an as-needed or as-ready basis throughout the year as they come up. I don't know that I've ever made an official New Year's resolution in my long life.

Do you mind if you borrow your resolution to keep the camels out of my yard, though, if I ever choose to be frivolous again and attend a New Year's Eve party?

[moggyfan]

When I finally cleaned up my house, it was an October.
When I finally quit smoking, it was a July.

I don't do so well with January. So, no.

[wildpony]

I used to set extravagant, life changing (If I actually did it) New Year's Resolutions and by February I had failed so miserably that I was devastated. That "all-or-nothing" mentality at work

Now, NO - January is not my most favorite month anyway.

I choose to always have a goal or 2 ahead of me to work on when I accomplish one I set another one soon after.

[bluefrog]

The only thing DH and I have resolved to do this year is to make whatever changes may become necessary to keep our noses above water. We did OK this year, and hope to keep up in 2012. We make a little more than we spend, and we have enough of pretty much everything we need. In a really lousy economy, that will do.

[immaculata]

I don't usually make New Year's Resolutions but this year I hope to make a few, mainly to do with getting my house decluttered completely (I can dream!) and with getting more creativity into my life.

[PaperGrace]

I've been talking about this recently too, and I think that SPRING resolutions make more sense. I'll wait for the season change and probably make a health related resolution. I started here in SOoS this Fall, so that seems like enough of a personal lifestyle change for a while!

[wynken]

Sometimes I do make them - but usually its along the lines on ... by years end I want to do xyz more consistantly. So not expecting a sudden jump anywhere, just to be willing and wanting a new routine ....or eating habits or whats needed.

That said I have been toying with an idea of attempting flyladys original success at 1 new habit a month thing. Mostly I'm doing dishes daily these days .... but am I willing to want a clearred sink every evening? its an idea swimming in my brain. Keeps surfacing. Maybe I'll experiment with doing that again ... or not. I'm not sounding at all convinced. I did begin mid Jan in 2005 doing that and it helped ... til I stopped.

[casper]

Many decades ago I made a new years resolution to never ever make another new years resolution again.
And so far I have managed to keep that resolution

[Calico]

I'm kinda making a January plan - to reset my schedule: get to work earlier, leave earlier, eat at a more reasonable time (6-7 pm instead of 9 pm), and get to bed earlier. Sounds like a lot, but they're all related. Just reset my whole daily routine by about 3 hours. I'm a bookkeeper, so I'll be working overtime in January to get the year-end accounting and tax prep done, and I'll go nuts if I keep the schedule I'm on now.

A friend and I brainstormed today about ways we can help each other stay on track with our goals, so that will help.

So, not really a "resolution", and not for a whole year, but a plan to try to make my January more manageable.

[hiding]

They don't work for me so I stopped making New Year's Resolutions. I found that when I'm ready to stop a bad behavior or start a good one, it has nothing to do with the date. I have a gym in my garden shed now but when I used to go to a non-coed gym. When I got the resolve to start going, I just did - and continued to do so. Every January, a bunch of new people would be there for a few weeks and then we'd never see them again. They didn't even give the workouts a chance to start making a noticeable difference.

Anyway, it seems to me that trying to make a change based on the calendar is setting oneself up for disappointment and failure. It never worked for me when I was trying to stop smoking either.

[downandout]

i havent made any New Years resolutions in years but for some reason this year i did!
but this is stuff i really need to do - oh and i just copied this from my blog:


i will get outside more. it seems to me that i need to be out in the fresh air more than i am. this will improve my spirits and even improve my health.

i will cut out the sweets. ive tried this before but only half-heartedly. i really need to do this before i become a diabetic.

i will exercise once a day. it can be walking outside or walking on the treadmill or doing bending/stretching but i need to do something.

i will make it a point to get out of my comfort area at least once a week. this can be anything from going to a new area to dealing with stuff in the doom room to making those dreaded phone calls. i need to challenge myself on this before i become immobilized by my own fears.


Happy New Year everyone!

[iris]

Yes, for the first time I made a New Years Resolution: to clean up my house during 2012. I have never believed in making resolutions. I always thought it's something that seems like a good idea and doable for a little while, but then end up in failure and dissapointment. But my resolution is something I really want and have been working on for a while now already (so I'm kind of cheating a little bit, ) so my resolution is just making a timeline for a goal that's already there. I even started a blog here about my resolution...

Happy new year everyone!