Wednesday December 27, 2006

Making resolutions
Current mood: impressed
Category: Life

Making at least one New Year’s resolution was an annual tradition for me. They were pretty normal for someone like me. I was going to do my daily devotional, I was going to lose weight. I was pretty good at keeping them for about the first six weeks then life and lack of drive would make me falter. Or give me an excuse to falter.

So, I quit making them. Thought they were stupid, I thought. After all, if I really wanted to do something I wouldn’t wait for Jan. 1, right? After all, why set myself up for failure by making a promise, right?

This year I’m singing a different tune. No, I’m not going to make the traditional New Years resolutions (although I would love to finish losing that last 75 pounds). I still think how I was going about them before was bunk. I made this promise to myself for a whole year. Well, as soon as I broke that promise I figured it was all over for the year. Just make the promise again next year.

I’m not going to make a New Year’s resolution this year. I’m going to make New Daily resolutions. That’s how I have learned to take life. Daily. I want to improve my life but it isn’t something I decide to do for a year. If I fail one day, I make a new commitment to myself to strive for that goal.

I also screwed up by being too specific. Lose X number of pounds in a certain amount of time. Yes, specific goals are good to keep a person on track. But if you get too focused on something specific you can lose sight of being flexible. You can lose sight of the success you do find even if you don’t reach your ultimate goal. After all, if you promise yourself you’ll climb a mile-high mountain and you only make it three-quarters of a mile, then that doesn’t mean you suck. It just means you did something awesome that was different than what you thought you would.

So in that spirit, I resolve to daily:

-Love myself and take care of myself in mind, body and soul; and

-Treat others with respect, even love. The golden rule, in a way. But more than that. Treat people well because it blesses both of us. Treat them well because they are God’s creation and have inherent value just by being on this earth.

Those are pretty broad, I know. So here are some specific action plans I’m going to keep in mind for my daily journey:

-Continue counseling to work on all aspects of the broad goals,

-Start going to church or some kind of church-related function as often as possible,

-Work to gain control of my food addiction, which includes dealing with my pride and figuring out what void I’m trying to fill,

-Continue to try and follow the concepts in Matthew 5, with all people, not just the assholes., and

-Continue my work with establishing and keeping personal boundaries in an attempt to live a happier life and get along better with others.

Um, Yeah. This is gonna keep me busy.

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