New Years Resolutions

I’m a big believer in New Year’s Resolutions.  Having said that, I hadn’t really thought of any.  Sure, there’s the resolutions that could be carried over from last years—all that diet and exercise stuff—but nothing new.

At this time of year, I feel self-conscious about running. Tomorrow morning will the the worst.  The sidewalks and pavements are always packed with runners on the first of Jan.  Since my long career in running has not done much to reduce my weight (imagine if I didn’t run!), I always look like a novice when I’m out there.  I look like a New Year’s runner.  But still, there’s nothing wrong with being someone out on a run because they made a resolution.  Good for them!  They probably feel self-conscious too, but they do it anyway.

This time of year, if you talk about resolutions, 3 or 4 people say the same thing-- “My resolution this year is to not make any resolutions!”  Hah!  Get’s me every time!  How clever.

The problem I always had with resolutions is that I fear being mocked if I don’t carry them out.  I felt the same way when I started running or earlier this year when I started going to the gym.  I felt that if I start, I could never stop because that would be failure somehow.

If I go for a run on 1 January, for example, I feel as if I have to run every day after that.  If I start going to the gym, I need to go for years.  But the truth is, this kind of fear stopped me from doing lots of things.  If I go to the gym once, it’s one time more than never going.  If I see it as something I need to do today rather than a commitment to something for the rest of my life, it makes it much easier to handle.

My most famous resolution with my family is the time I decided I would become a vegetarian.  It lasted 7 days.  But that burger on January 7th was fantastic!

My parents quick smoking on New Years when I was a kid.  They never took it up again.  Resolutions are not always broken.

There’s nothing magical about a New Year’s resolution—it just gives you an excuse to make a goal.  An it’s easier to tell people how long you’ve been keeping it up.

I’ll spend today thinking of a good resolution.  It seems a waste of a calendar change if I can’t come up with one.

Happy New Year and I wish you a wonderful 2010.