New Years

Here we are, once again, in the beginning of a new month in a new year. Now is the time that people typically make their resolutions for the year. This year I have a couple, but I keep thinking (if i'm actually going to do this resolution thing) I should have more than just two. This has been cooking in the back of my brain for the last week. Hehe.. ok, I promise this post isn't a lobby effort to make everybody make resolutions, mostly it's just me posting my musings because writing them out often helps me clarify my jumbley thoughts. I promise to bring it back around to fitness :)

So, I was up in the gym today, walking along on the treadmill and I started thinking about this whole New Year's Resolution thing. I recognize that not everyone partakes of this yearly tradition. Throughout my life, my observance of it has been spotty at best. When I was growing up I would right them down in my journal on January 1st and, most years, they would be completely forgotten by January 2nd. Though, in recent years I've taken to a more active observance of New Year Resolutions. In recent conversations with my husband, I've found myself revisiting the reasons that I make these resolutions in January. He raises and interesting question though; why do we do this in January? He wonders why this doesn't happen in the spring when new life is springing up rather than the dead of winter...

Anyway, back a few years ago now (sometime when I was in college) I remember we had a fireside or a CES broadcast or something where someone talked about the benefits of resolutions. At the time I was actively not making resolutions; I'd become disenchanted with them when it seemed that each year I would break or forget them before February came; what's the point?? But at this fireside they pointed out that resolution=goal. And they suggested that goals are good to have in your life - They keep you moving in an fixed direction. In addition to making your goals attainable (but still challenging), they suggested that goals should be more specific than vauge and general. But then I would add that it doesn't have to be "all or nothing". Percentages are ok; try try try again.

In my (unfruitful) search today for this fireside or CES broadcast or whatever it was, I came across this quote by Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin: “You should look ahead now and decide what you want to do with your lives. … Write your goals and review them regularly. Keep them before you constantly, record your progress, and revise them as circumstances dictate. Your ultimate goal should be eternal life” (Ensign, Nov. 1989, 73).

So, while I was up there walking, I began to consider my goals for the year.. or my life.. or even just the next month. What do I want to accomplish? Often I think I fall into a sort of coasting mode. Not so much idle, I am productive and even creative, but I don't necessary have any specific direction overall. Lulls are nice, even good; frenzied feverish activity isn't a sustainable lifestyle (for me). However, I do think that I could use more direction sometimes.

Then my thoughts came around to my recent resolving to work out with more regularity. So then I thought that that's kind of vauge. What does "more regularity" mean? This lead me to decide what I wanted to add to my very short list of New Year's Resolutions.

3. Work out (at least) three times a week
4. Lose 7lbs by June and another 8 by December.

So these I will add to my little list, maybe even one or two others, and then I will write them down and put them on the inside of the cabinet in my bathroom because there I'll be sure to see them every day. That worked for those from 2008; I feel like those were actually acheived at ~87.92%. Not to shabby for 12 months!