New Year's Resolution Or Not?

We have all heard the New Year’s resolutions before. I’m going to loose weight…I am going to exercise more….I am going to get out of debt, etc. People will make a New Year’s resolution but after a few weeks or a month they forget it. Once we forget to do it for a few days, it is hard to start it again. It is for this reason that I do not make New Year’s resolutions. I never have. I have seen too many people get aggravated at themselves for not keeping the ones they make. Often to the point of depression.

I have set a standard for myself. One by which I keep tabs on every day. I keep a daily journal. I write my accomplishments, goals and my short comings each night before I go to sleep. I have found that by doing this simple task, I can monitor my progress in life. When I have had a bad day, that gets wrote down, as well as a good day. I write my feelings and my trials along with the wonderful things that occur in my daily life. It is by doing this that I have grown. I often go back and read previous writings. By doing this, I can see how much I have grown and progressed in various areas in my life. I can see the close knit relationship between my family and myself. I can see my goals in life being met. I can also see other goals in my life not being met. It is by reading these past entries that I set a new goal to do better in a particular area.

I have made a list of questions that I use to evaluate myself the first of each month. I wrote this list on page 5 of my Journal. By evaluating myself, I can see where I am doing better and where I still need to improve. I use the same list for the entire year. I have some pretty tough questions that I use. I am not easy on myself. On the other hand, I  do not set goals that are not attainable. I know that if I work hard I can attain the goals that I have set for myself.  On page 1 of my journal, I write information about myself , my husband and both our daughters. Then on page 2, 3 and 4 I tape pictures of my family. These pictures remind me why I am setting goals and why they are important to me. I want my family to one day be proud of who I was. I want my Great, great grandchildren to know who I was, to know that I had trials and that I worked hard to overcome them.

I have a lot of medical problems and I am not going to give into them. I will fight till the bitter end. As determined as I am, I may just win. If I had listened to the Doctor’s, I would have been dead years ago. They told me that I would never be able to walk right again. Today, I walk as well as anyone else. I was told that I would never lead a normal life again and again I told them I would. I will not give up nor will I quit the fight to live the kind of life that I want.

One of my goals that I have had for years is “I want to be better tomorrow than I was today”. To some, this may be a New Years resolution but I opt to think of it as a goal in life. A goal that I do intend to reach.