One of the ways, at least in my humble opinion, to make your resolutions stick like fly paper (and that stuff really does work - I'll tell you how I know some other time, but it involves my son walking around the house in the dark one summer evening) is to share them with the general public. No one sets out to be a failure in others' eyes so voila, instant sticktoitiveness!
So, 1-1-11 leads me to look a what I want to do to make some changes in me. I certainly would like to lose weight - my gym membership runs out early in March, but I was lucky enough to get some new exercise videos for the holidays this year, plus I have my Wii, so I can certainly work on that- as well as shutting my mouth as all the tasty food morsels get passed around. I certainly don't want to be skinny - not that I ever really could be skinny, but I would opt for thinner and healthier!
I also would like to clean up my act in term of swearing. I probably need to quit my job and work in a monastery to do that. My office is like a naval yard - three women and we all swear like sailors when we are alone together, yet on the phone we are all polite and well mannered business people. I worked for many years in a prison - that certainly did not help my swearing. And I hang out with a small group of friends and we check our language sensors at the door when we are together. Cleaning up my act would be seen as a good thing by many. I know I can control my language when I have to, but sometimes I slip and if I just try to delete it from an everyday habit, perhaps I can minimize the slippage.
Third on my list is to STOP texting while I am driving. I made a commitment to stop doing this about a year ago and have been pretty bad about following through. Today I saw a video and it made me cry and stop and think - It is on youtube, and I think to view it you put in text and drive AT&T in the search bar and it will come up. The video showed how easy it is to not only kill yourself, but to potentially kill someone else while doing something that ABSOLUTELY CAN WAIT!. One kid said it best - If someone had asked him to close his eyes for 5-6 seconds while he was driving down the highway he never would do it, yet he took his eyes off the road to respond to a text message and killed a bicyclist. He has to live with that for the rest of his life. It really made me think. I am not the only numbnut out there with a cell phone, and if they are texting how can I watch for them if I am texting. Hence, the cell phone will wait til I am parked. With that goes not texting others who I know are driving. I don't want to be responsible for someone killing themselves answering my text either! Funny, in the office when I need to concentrate on talking to a customer I get up and walk around so the stuff on my desk does not distract me - And I think I can text and drive? DumbA**.
The last thing on my list for 2011 is to share this blog. Following through and getting my thoughts out and down on a regular basis seems like a reasonable thing to be able to accomplish for one year. 52 weeks, 52 posts. I hope I have enough to say and in reasonably good English to have a few people who want to hear/read my ideas, ideals, and maybe share back. I am not super computer literate, and my spelling isn't always correct. I am not going to have links to send you, the reader to various sites - do your own research if you will, but I might be able to tell you where I found something out. On occasion I do have something valuable to share and I hope that you might want to be part of it!
"It Is What It Is" is the motto I am entering 2011 with. I am trying to look at the world thru newer eyes. Not griping about things that I have no control over and trying to make positive changes in my life and the lives of those around me. It is what it is; not defeatist, just a realist. As they say "Lord grant me the ability to change the things I can, leave the things I can't and the wisdom to know the difference".
Happiness and Peace to all in 2011.
