Resolutions or Goals?

Ah, New Years!  The time when many people are making their resolutions to lose weight, excercise more, do this, do that.... By the end of Spring it seems like almost everyone who made those resolutions have completely forgotten about them or have just given up! 

In the past couple of weeks the thought of making a good New Years resolution has been crossing my mind.  The idea of making and keeping a resolution sounds grand, but I myself have never managed to keep that idea going into action.  Why is this? 


According to Wikipedia, 52% of people in a study felt confindent that they would follow through with thier resolution, but only 12% actually did it.

It seems we set our minds on the finished product, over looking the actions that will get us there. 

The term "New Years Resolution" does absolutely nothing for me anymore.  Too many times have I said "I am really going to follow through with it this time" only to bail on my plans when the end result seems too far away.  This year I am not resolving to do a damn thing.  Instead, I will be setting myself realistic goals.  Mmmmmm!  There's the word!! 

I belive that in order for you to achieve your goals, you have to take baby steps all the way and do things that are appealing to you.  So you want to lose weight?  Why?  Will it make you happier?  Make you feel better?  Ok, then consider the things you can do that won't focus solely on your weight.  Have a goal to incorporate more nourishing foods into your diet, make time in the morning to simply walk around the yard observing what you see.  Simple things will lead you to your goal a whole lot better than focusing solely on the finished product.  Isn't it true that if you weigh yourself every day you will get disheartend when the scale is not so nice to you?  So why put yourself through that?

I'm not saying don't set big goals- not at all!  Go as big as you want!  Get your big ideas and commit to them, then step back and break it down into do-able sizes and set yourself a time line.  It seems like waaaay too much work when you have everything sitting in front of you, but if you were to break it down into monthly goals, it's not so daunting. 

A couple of my goals for the comming year....

• Put more home grown food on our table. This means I will be working toward building beds, testing different types of veggies, learning to save seeds....
• Become a better hooper.  Learning a new trick at least every two weeks, practicing for a solid hour or two at least once a week, getting together with the girls more...
• Pulling myself out of debt.  Learning to use what I have, cutting out disposables, growing more of our own foods...

See how one thing kind of leads to another?  Small simple goals, at least for me, are best!  Think about how you can take some of the pressure off of your resolutions simply by making small goals for yourself instead! 

And have a super fantastic New Year!!!