January and resolutions-Just make this year a little better than last.

Every year we go through the same exercise in futility…making our New Year’s resolutions. Well, ok, maybe I’m the only one who finds it to be futile but I don’t think that is the case. I say it’s an exercise in futility because what do we usually put down as our resolutions? Lofty goals that we know, deep down in our hearts, that we’ll have a difficult time achieving. Lose weight, exercise more, keep in touch with friends more often, spend more quality time with family, give more to charity, etc. Aren’t these the usual ones? They are great goals to be sure, but we almost always make them a little too lofty, too hard to reach, too unrealistic.

These have always been my resolutions in the past, but unfortunately, about a week into January they become fleeting little memories as I just try to move on with life and get by day to day. Here’s a list of what I would love to accomplish this year and next to it a more realistic goal. Let’s see if I can keep the more realistic one and if I do manage to hit one of the more lofty goals, then all the better.

1. Lose 50 pounds.  Realistically – 15 lbs would be fantastic

2. Run/walk at least 5 days a week. Realistically – once or twice a week is better than the nothing I do now.

3. Spend more time with family. Now this is the question, how do I quantify “more time”? It seems the only time we spend with family is special occasions. Realistically – I’d like to start out with one Sunday dinner a month with my kids and then we’ll see what happens from there.

I think this is all I can handle right now. It seems there is always a long laundry list of things we feel we need to do to improve ourselves or become a better person, and each year we’re disappointed when we fail.

So this year instead of putting all this pressure on being perfect I’m going to add a caveat of “Just make this year a little bit better than last”.