Keeping New Years Resolutions

Well it’s that time of year again. The time of year where people create a list of things they want to accomplish in the New Year, work on them for a couple weeks and then go back to their previous ways.

Why does keeping New Years resolutions seem so hard? I too am in the same boat. I’ll admit I’m one of those guys you see at the gym for the first month of the year, but then it is hard to find me there on a regular basis after January. I’ll get an occasional hot streak going throughout the year and stick to my plans for a couple weeks at a time. But then like clockwork, I have to work late or a family issue comes up and I have to skip my planned workout. No big deal, I just tell myself I’ll fit it in “tomorrow”. Of course more often than not, my workout plan now turns into I’ll do it tomorrow and tomorrow’s workout never seems to come.

It’s hard to snap out of routines you have been doing your whole life. It’s easy for me to say that I am going to start getting out of bed when the alarm clock goes off. However, I have been pressing the snooze button for so many year it’s hard for me to just flip a switch on January 1st and pop out of bed like I have been doing it all my life. Of course I write that down as one of my resolutions every year, but to be honest the first thing I did this morning when hearing my alarm go off, was hit the snooze button!

I have friends who every year say they are not drinking any alcohol at all during the month of January. They see this as a time to give their body a rest from the damage and partying they have done over the previous 11 months. There are a couple of problems that arise. One is, most of them seldom make it through all of January. The other is, those that do, party so hard on February 1st that the previous month of letting the body recover seems like a waste.

What are your resolutions and how do you stick to them? I’d love to hear stories from others that were either successful at keeping them or stories from those that have failed. Just like every year I will soon be creating my list of resolutions for 2009. Will I stick with them? We’ll see. I do have a plan this year though. I will be posting them on this site along with updates on how I am doing. I’m hoping a few of you will watch over me and keep me on track this year!

Happy New Year! Now get busy writing those resolutions.