New Year, New Start

Happy New Year, one and all!

I love the beginning of a new year.  For me, it's like starting a new journal - everything is clean and blank, and I haven't messed anything up (at least not yet).  I've discovered something about myself as the years go by though.  I suck when it comes to making resolutions.  Seriously.  I start out with the best of intentions, but by the end of the first week of Janaury I've already broken at least one resolution, and the rest seem to go down like dominos very soon after.  Whoever said that the road to hell is paved with good intentions obviously knows me.  I've finally acknowledged this inassailable truth about myself and resolutions, and I've relegated them to the category of fruitless endeavours.  What I did last year that met with slightly more success was I sat down and examined my life, and made a list of goals that I wanted to accomplish in various areas.  And guess what? I actually managed to accomplish a couple of them! Of course, when I came across my goals list there were more things undone than done on it.  But the point is there were a couple of things that I did manage to do.  What I did this year that I'm hoping will be even more successful is that I took a sheet of paper for each month and made a list of a few things that I want to have done by the end of that month.  Then at the end, I took a few more sheets of paper and titled them all "Progress"; these are where I can make notes on how I'm doing on meeting my monthly goals.  Now you're probably saying to yourself "Wait a minute, isn't that the same thing as making resolutions?" Well yes, technically it probably is.  But you see, by telling myself that I'm setting goals for the year, and not making yet another resolution that will be broken by the end of January, I figure my chances for success are much higher.  To my way of thinking, it falls along the lines of the "how do you eat an elephant?" prinicple.  By breaking my goals down into small manageable pieces, they're going to be much easier to accomplish rather than looking at large tasks, getting overwhelmed and giving up before I even start.  Wish me luck, cuz I'm probably going to need it!

Until next time,
J.

PS. The way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time.