New You's Resolutions.

New Year's Resolutions: Just do it!

My sister never makes a resolution. Sorry, that's incorrect. She makes the same resolution every year: "I resolve not to make any resolutions." Hardy har har sis, it was barely funny in 1999, it's nowhere near comedy club material now. Her thinking is that 99% of people fail at starting some new project for the new year, so why bother?

Here's why you should bother - because trying something new in order to better yourself works every time, whether you ultimately stick to the adaptation or not.

I don't care if, on January 1st, you stick to your new diet for just one month, one week, or one hour - that's still one hour more of intelligent eating than you did yesterday, and you've changed.

I don't care if you apply to college in January, because you resolved that 2012 would be the year you go back to school, and then in February you discover an inate ability to win hot dog eating contests and give up on the whole college thing altogether. I don't care, because you've changed. Because that January you did something to make your life better. Then February came, and I bet you were still buzzing on how well you filled out that clown college application, and the burst of adrenaline made you crazy-hungry enough to eat fifty hot dogs in less than ten minutes. Then you won! You won because you had momentum and you tried something new and amazing, and it led to something else that was new and amazing, and soon, after a bit of practice, you will be the hot dog eating champion of the world! Sure, eating more hot dogs wasn't your original New Year's Resolution, but waking up in January and changing that one little thing about who you are ignited a path that will eventually lead you to Coney Island on July 4th to take on Joey "Jaws" Chestnut in the world hot dog eating contest (I know a little bit about a lot of useless things. and by the way, good luck! I hear that guy can do 62 in ten minutes.)

This year my resolutions are the same ones I had last year. I wanted to get my house organized, lose weight, and lower my Hemoglobin A1c (a very important blood test for diabetics, of which I am one). I was just okay at those resolutions. My HbA1c is a couple of points lower, not great but good, and I gained weight instead of lost it but that's because of a new medication program, and my house is a little less confusing but I still can't find a pipe wrench anywhere (and we own three of them.)
So this year I've improved upon last year's plans. For the weight goal, my gal pals and I are joining Weight Watchers and together we will drop a few pounds. For organization, I will put things back in their place after I use them. For the HbA1C thing, I will monitor my blood glucose a little bit closer. I say "I will" do these things because it's a positive thing to say, but will they actually get done? Maybe. I don't know, and I don't care. I'm sure I'll never find a pipe wrench, and I need one right now to fix a faucet, so I'll go out and buy another one for now. But, I'm going to try my best to put it away in an organized spot when I'm done. I'm going to do this because I resolved to do it. If I don't succeed I'm not going to be disappointed in myself, but I will resolve, and keep resolving, to do better the next time.

I know it's January 6 already, so you think it's too late to make a resolution, but you're wrong. Tomorrow is the perfect day to change your life, so make a January 7th resolution. Make two resolutions if you're bold, and make three if you're crazy. Then try them for a week and see how you feel. Fail at them, then try them again.

Don't resolve not to make any resolutions sis, resolve to keep resolving. Resolutions lead to revolutions (that was my tacky cliché of the evening. I resolve to make more of those; I like them.) The moment you attempt to make yourself better is the exact moment you become better than you once were, and that can never be changed. You might fail miserably, but you will have learned your limits and you will have changed yourself, and change is good.

Crown Royal, MD - resolving not to post while drunk anymore. Well, this is the last one, I swear.