HAPPY NEW YEAR

New Years is almost synonymous with resolutions.

And it seems now is the time of year many of us make these.  I suppose it makes sense.  New Year, new beginning, fresh start.

res·o·lu·tion  (rz-lshn)
n.
1. The state or quality of being resolute; firm determination.
2. A resolving to do something.
3. A course of action determined or decided on.

I've always leaned toward not making resolutions, especially this time of year, mainly because of the pressure to do so. I figure if you're going to do something, why wait? Just do it. But this year, I'm kinda leaning toward reaffirming some old resolutions that have softened somewhat.

For instance, I had started an exercise regime last summer. I lost twenty pounds and two sizes, but although I've only gained five pounds due to holiday indulgence, I haven't exercised in over a month. Maybe two. With all Christmas activities and illnesses I haven't found the resolve to get back on track. I resolve to start exercising every day.

With the exceptions of Facebook, I haven't blogged or been online. But I'm looking at 2 books coming out in the space of 2 months and I'm thinking this is something I need to make time to do at least once a week.

So I resolve to play a bit on Twitter.  

There are a dozen other things I'd like to resolve to do: Eat right, keep the house clean, spend more time writing, spend more time with my kids, spend more time on me, but then I'd fall into the pit of piling on so many resolutions that I can't hope to keep them all. There is only so much time you can spend until you move into the red.

So for me. That's it. Exercise, and twitter. Perhaps an odd combination.

How about you? Which side of the coin do you fall on? Do you have any resolutions this year?

Resolutions?

I was thinking about priorities when I saw Beth’s post on Everybody Needs a little Romance 

I don’t make resolutions. I don't think there is anything wrong with them, but they do tend to be hard to keep. I think if you’re gonna do something, don’t resolve to do it. Just do it.  Yeah, I know the new year is a new start but so is each and every day.

Last year, after the birth of the baby who does not sleep, my husband and I had to reassess our priorities. Obviously, the baby took up a lot of my time. There were things I just wasn’t getting done that I wanted to get done.  This required a hard look at obligations.

First we had to separate the things I wanted to do from the things I had to do. I have to get the kids to school each day on time, fed and dressed. I want to get them to school after I’m dressed and made up, having worked for a least an hour and gotten them a hot, nutritious breakfast.  Yeah, so not happening. Not when I only get 5 or 6 hours of sleep.

My husband took over the finances. Yeah, that was hard but do you know what? I could almost feel the pressure ease off my shoulders. I don’t even look over his shoulder.

I stopped volunteering at the school. That was hard because I enjoyed it but it just didn’t make the top ten list this school year.

I also had to put me higher on the priority list. I am my own worst enemy. I have this idea that I can do everything.  I can’t. But trying has negatively effected my health and as my husband tells me, without my health I can’t do anything so taking a few moments for me isn’t selfish. I’m still getting used to that one.

Writing. Yeah, this is my stress relief and an added stress. Writing takes time. Time for me is more precious than money, but making more money doing something I love sure would take some of the financial stress away. So writing has stayed high on the priority list...it fluctuates between four and five. 

This year, if I had to make a resolution, it would be to resolve to remember that I don’t have time for everything I want to do, and what I get done that day, is what I needed to get done.  No beating myself up for not getting the best dinner on the table or for not finding time to clean out the pantry... again, or prune the roses.

My resolve, not for the new year but for always, is to live the day. Really live it. Enjoy what I’m doing, while I’m doing it instead of thinking of all those things I am not doing. To love with my entire heart and not hold back whether out of fear or for any other reason.

Have you made any recent changes or resolutions?

Writerly Wednesdays: Kay Keppler

Hello and welcome to my brand new feature, Writerly Wednesdays. Please welcome Kay Keppler!

New Year’s resolutions. They’re a good idea, at least in theory. The end of the year is a time to reflect, to evaluate--and to hope. To plan.

In practice, however, resolutions suck. I write mine on Dec. 31 and start to feel commitment slippage by Jan 4. Total abandonment usually arrives by mid-February, accompanied by feelings of inadequacy and failure.

I can think of worse things than failing to keep one’s resolutions. Root canals. Epidurals. Allergies to chocolate.

But New Year’s resolutions--those promises to yourself that you’ll lose weight, save more money, get more sleep, quit smoking--if ever there was a recipe for failure, Resolutions R It. I’ve spent way too many holidays staring down the old year with a jaded, gimlet eye; gazing at the new page in the calendar with a tender, moist look. The look that says, this time I’ll win, this year I’ll keep my resolutions--only, by mid-February, to have that look change to one of jaded failure. Again.

Last year around this time, I was uncharacteristically contented and confident. I could make resolutions! I could keep them! I would be a better person!

And the miracle was, I did make a resolution (just one, but it was big)--and I kept it! Knowing that “losing weight” was too vague and too unlikely to happen, I picked an easy resolution to make: I vowed to become a better person.

Simple! Just about anything would qualify. Eat some brussels sprouts? A better person! Take a walk? Better person! Clean out a closet? Better!  

All through 2011, I succeeded with my resolution. I phoned home. Wrote a thank-you note. Met a deadline. All good. I even went for an “annual” physical--an event so rare that my doctor calls me her “invisible friend.” And everything I did meant that I was succeeding in my New Year’s resolution.

This year, though, not so much. “Better person”--that’s so 2011. We’re barely into 2012, and I’m already late paying my bills. I’ve eaten too many simple carbs, and I haven’t cleaned my office. “Become a better person” isn’t cutting the mustard this year. I need specificity!

So far this January, I’m much more irresolute about my resolutions. I haven’t really settled on anything. But I fear that I’ll be following in Mark Twain’s footsteps. He said that New Year's Day was the accepted time to make resolutions. Next week, as usual, was the time to begin paving hell with them.

I wish you better luck--and way more resolve--with your goals for the New Year!

 

 Kay Keppler has written in several genres including manga, contemporary romance, and coming in April 2012, space opera. She lives in northern California where she writes and edits fiction and nonfiction and lives happily in a 100-year-old house that's had a few plumbing problems. Now, if the duct tape holds, everything will be perfect.