On New Year’s Resolutions

It’s a bit early for New Year’s resolutions, you may be thinking. Recent events in my life have led me to thinking about changes, however, and what are resolutions if not changes?

In the past month or so, my life has taken a turn for the worse. Or for the better. It depends on how you look at things, and at this point, I choose the latter. Things may seem bad right now, but in the long run, it’s probably for the better.

This brings me to resolutions and how it has become tradition to make them when a new year begins. But why do we have to wait till the beginning of a new year to make changes for the better? Why can’t we just say that today, I will implement change?

It doesn’t have to be big changes all in one go. Baby steps on a daily basis – these should work just as well as New Year’s resolutions, don’t you think? In my case, I think they are doing me even more good. Of course, I have to disclose that just like countless other people, I have never been good with New Year’s resolutions.

It has only been a month since I started implementing little and not-so-little changes here and there. I can’t say with 100% certainty that these changes will be be forever, but I do know that, creature of habit that I am, the chances are that they will become part of my routine and that they will be incorporated into my life.

The trick is in pushing myself to stick to those resolutions on a daily basis. I can’t even summon the strength to think about a month or two down the road. For now, it is enough that I have been working on things for a month, on a daily basis – sometimes even hourly! – and that I am looking forward to continuing implementing those changes.

New Year’s resolutions? Nah, I’ll pass this year. I’m giving myself a head start and am welcoming the Year of the Dragon a person who has learned a lot. A person who is spreading her arms wide open to what the world has to offer, sans New Year’s resolutions.

How about you? Are you compiling your list for 2012? Why wait if you really want to change for the better? Why not start with some things NOW?

Photo via itthing