Monday, December 27, 2010

Not One for New Year's Resolutions

I was never one for New Year’s resolutions.  What’s the point?  What’s wrong with the other 364 days of the year?

I figure, if there is something one wants to do or start, why wait?  Start right now. 

The Professor and I have different views on this matter.  Take these Holiday days for example.  Totally overeating, drinking.  I’m ballooning up like a Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade Kung Fu Panda.

So each morning I tell him, I’m not going to eat and drink so much today.  I guess you could call that a DAILY resolution. 

His thinking on the whole matter is why bother over the Holiday.  He’s already blown it, moved the belt notch over one.  He’s waiting until after New Years and then he’ll start.  A clean slate.

I’m not sure I get his strategy.  But it works for him.  Just as mine works for me. 

For me, each day is an opportunity to be better, to do better, to be more in the moment, more conscious of my actions and achievements for that day. 

And if I fail and eat the Cheez-Its that I started the day out swearing I wouldn’t touch, not really a big deal.  Because I’ve got tomorrow to try again and the day after that. 

I’m perfect in my head ... imperfect in my actions.

This is the time of year, though, that I do begin to think of the year ahead and what I hope to accomplish and achieve.  When I was in my twenties, thirties and even forties, I didn’t take much time to do this.  I pretty much was just trying to make it day to day, not sure what the next year might bring, but always optimistic it would be good.  There seemed to be plenty of time to get around to the things I someday wanted to do.

Well, now I’m thinking there may not be so much time left.  Entering your fifties sort of makes you take stock of what you have done, what you still want to do and how you’re going to get there.

Some folks figure this out sooner than I did. 

Yes ... in some areas of my life, I have been a slow learner.

So, maybe you’ve got it all figured out.  Or maybe you’re still struggling, like the majority of the population, on how you are going to get through the day, the week, the next year. 

Difficult to find your way without a roadmap.

I use this coming week as a time to look at what I did or didn’t do over the past year.
 
Did I call my kids enough?  No.
Did I work out enough? No.
Did I lose the weight I wanted?  No.
Did I get enough writing done? No.
Did I tell The Professor enough how much I appreciate him.  No.

But what I did get done this year was to walk more, exercise more, give The Professor more hugs, and write more by creating this blog, just to name a few.

I know I was better this year than last. And I hope to be better in this coming year.  Although, I don’t think my kids are much impressed with MORE attention.  My life feels a bit like the song “Cat’s in the Cradle”.

But I digress.

This week, with pen and paper, I will again write down the three focus areas:  Personal, Family and Household, and start listing what I’d like to work on over the coming year. 

My Roadmap.

And maybe some would consider these New Year’s resolutions.  But to me, they are ongoing, flowing from one year to the next.  Rolling into the new year, the new month, the new week, the new day.

..... Because my life has been a series of corrections and each day is an opportunity to set my sails with the changing winds.

..... Because a life is never finished.  It is evolving, changing, unfolding into something different each and every day.

365 days.

365 opportunities in the year to be a better wife, mother, friend, sister, neighbor, sailor, kayaker, biker, exerciser.

..... to be a better me.

Not something I need to wait for with a New Year’s Resolution.

Now ...  pass me those Cheez-Its.

Yours truly,
missing the mom gene