Motivation And Goals And Resolutions, Oh My!

Ahhhh, the holidays. Are we all exhausted yet? I do hope that you all had a safe and happy holiday - however/whatever you celebrate.

As I type this I am rolling down the highway fully loaded with all three kids and a husband that stops for almost nothing. We're coming home from Florida where we stayed with grandma and great grandma. It was really nice to see the family we love, but, I am very much ready to come home.

Before I left I had grand intentions of taking a lot of time to reflect while in Florida. ...I don't know why I thought that I am going to go somewhere WITH my family and have the opportunity to do that when they are a lot of the reason I can't do much of that at home. So, needless to say, there was little "me" time on this trip. That's not to say that I didn't have room for reflection. I certainly did a lot of that. Admittedly, some of it may have been "OMG, why didn't I just stay home?!" kind of stuff, but not all of it.

I don't know how I feel about resolutions, I just think that New Years resolutions are so cliche which makes them that much easier to give up on. It's common knowledge that most people who make resolutions do not end up sticking to them, and I believe this fact alone can make it easier for people to give up... "it's no big deal".  But, goals are important. I like the prospect of what a New Year can bring. If you decide anything is a new beginning then it IS a new beginning, and new beginnings can be very powerful. Why not embrace the now and take it? This, in general, is really my GOAL for this year. Live life. Create and stop stopping myself from following my dreams.

 I am very much aware that we are each the only ones responsible for the change, or lack there of, in our lives. If you want to stop smoking (and you should because it's gross and only supports ridiculous corporations...not to mention almost every person I've ever known who smoked also bitched about being broke..) then STOP. Everything you tell yourself is an excuse, and yea, it might suck....but guess what? SOMETIMES LIFE SUCKS. Suck it up! Wanna be healthy? DO IT. Jesus...you would think that everyone is sitting around and waiting for someone to do it all for them. We're ALL guilty. My weakness? I have a hard time controlling my anger and I'm extremely impatient. The difference is I take responsibility for it and am always working toward change. Every day is a new opportunity to change something, and looking in from the big picture, I'm doing well. That's a big part of accomplishing our goals, too, I think. Giving credit where credit is due. I could beat myself up all day long about what I'm NOT doing better at, and go no where fast while I'm at it. OR - I can give myself credit for how far I've come while recognizing that I still have a ways to go. We've got to be proud of each and every step we've made towards change because each one is necessary in the journey towards transformation.

Anyways, all I'm saying is change is important, but most of all, it's POSSIBLE!! Start small and expand from there. It's like going green. If you really dig into the problems we have environmentally it can easily become overwhelming, leaving us with this hopeless feeling that we could never do enough. But, if we just break it down into something we can do, like eliminating plastic shopping bags and bottled water (EXCELLENT starting points - please consider doing both), our way of thinking changes with it. Pretty soon we are seeing all sorts of ways that we can make changes. And each of those changes DOES matter. I have been bringing my own bags to the grocery store consistently since 2005ish. It wasn't super popular at the time - almost NOBODY else was doing it as a matter of fact. At first it was really difficult to remember my bags (and I hear this excuse all the time), but I realized that I had to find a way to MAKE myself remember. So, I began either leaving my cart up front and running out to grab my bags, or I would have to put everything back into the cart after check out and bag at my car. Eventually I remembered. Now I look at these bags and I can not help but wish there was a way to tally up how many bags each of my reusables has saved. It's got to be thousands of bags by now. Thousands. I want you to imagine just for a minute what a thousand plastic shopping bags might look like...

So, you can see how a small change can make a big - and important difference. 

I also use filtered water from home - I am VERY MUCH against bottled water. Did you guys know about the trash island in the middle of the ocean?  We've really gotta get it together. 

But, I digress. This was less about the little things we could do to help the environment and more about what we could do to help ourselves (even though the two do go hand in hand). The principle is the same though. Dare to dream, decide what you want and then break it down into baby steps to accomplish it. Appreciate the journey and celebrate every accomplishment. Amaze yourself this year. I know you can!