Promise?

It's that time of year again....December 31. New Year's Eve. Made your resolutions yet? What are resolutions? They are the promises we make ourselves (and maybe secretly others) at the end of every year to better our lives the following year. However, they do not always stick as we have found out year after year. We have a white hot, new gym membership January 2nd that gets thrown aside by February 2nd. I find that we set the same goals for ourselves every year: general, a little far-reaching, and, if I do say so, a bit generic.

There is nothing I want more than to go a year with at least one of my resolutions still intact. So here's my idea for a fix: No more of "cut out junk food" or "go to the gym every other day" because let's be real...neither of those is going to stick very long with me. The awful truth is that as much as we want to say we do, our will power is not that strong. So instead of asserting these powerful promises tonight I will still make the generic resolutions, but not treat them as the end-all-be-all of my 2013 lifestyle. Baby steps will be my method.

Instead of completely cutting out junk food, I will set guidelines. I will taper off and hopefully by summer I will only have one day when I treat myself to a sugar-y sweet. Instead of going straight for the equipment at the gym, I will start small with an easier workout routine that I can do in my dorm until I am comfortable shedding the sweatpants for running shorts in the outside world.

In my view, the resolution a goal that you should work towards during the year, not something that you are going to force yourself to do. That's my thought at least. I am excited to hear what all of your resolutions are going to be for this coming year. Here are mine:

- Put more effort in a healthy lifestyle
- Try to put myself in someone else's shoes to understand them a little better
- Really try to discover what I want out of life (no, I still have not figured this out yet)

Those are just a few. I might think of some more at work...I do a lot of my thinking there ;)

<3 Ashley

What are some of your New Year's resolutions?