January 4, 2010

Hello everyone! Happy New Year! I hope this year will be prosperous and your dreams will become a reality. That’s what we all want right? I think that’s why so many people make New Year’s resolutions. They want to improve their lives in some area and the start of the New Year seems like the perfect time. The gyms are packed, diet programs begin, and people quit smoking. The problem with resolutions is that they don’t seem to last very long. A few months in the gyms are not quite so busy, the cupcake stores have picked up business and people are left feeling pretty bad about not sticking with their resolutions. There are of course some people who do stick with their resolutions, but I don’t think it’s because they did it on New Years. I think they would be successful whenever they started, because the day they begin is not important. It’s the desire to change their habits.


Changing habits is incredibly difficult to do. I’ve often heard it said that it takes two weeks to change a habit. Perhaps for some people it does, but that has never been true for me. Plus I find it easier to focus on one day at a time when I am trying to change. It seems less daunting. I think the biggest thing one must do in order to change their lives is to change their thinking. Our thought patterns are what keep us stuck or propel us forward and we are bombarded with these thoughts every single day. For example, if you are trying to lose weight and go on a diet, you will be overwhelmed by how much you think about food and what you can eat and how many calories you have consumed. While your thoughts before the diet might have been along the lines of “I need to lose weight,” now you are consumed with thoughts on how to get through your day and what you can eat. I’ve never found this concept to work for me because I become obsessed with food, which is basically the exact opposite result of what I want to happen. It would be better to change your thought patterns by affirming to yourself, “I am a healthy eater,” or “I will lose weight by honoring my body.” You might have to tell yourself these affirmations over and over again, and you should do them every single day, but eventually they begin to work because you start to believe them. Once you believe what you think, results begin to appear. It is certainly not a quick fix, and our society is in love with the quick fix, but it is a long term fix.

When I was a little girl and I had undergone a bad day, my mom used to tell me that tomorrow was the first day of the rest of my life. Meaning that every day we wake up can be the first day we work on something new or change our lives. It doesn’t have to be New Years or the first day of a new month or a Monday. It can be any day in the year that we choose. Remember the importance lies in the actions we take in accomplishing our goals. Not in the day of the year we do so. Here’s to the first day of the rest of your life!