Resolutions

This is a post about New Year's resolutions.  It's kind of funny to be writing a post about resolutions a whole week into the new year, when some new resolutions have already been dropped, but, in the words of my former landlord, "It is what it is."  Some people don't like the idea of resolutions because they are so often dropped and because efforts towards positive change should be happening continually, not just once a year.  But for me, it's helpful to have an annual occasion to think about goal setting, or i would very easily forget to think about it at all.  Here are a few things I think about when forming resolutions:

• Keep it manageable.  I think this is the very biggest thing for making resolutions that will stick.  It's tempting to set lofty, impressive goals.  For example, last year I really wanted to get back into the habit of running, and I thought (*briefly*) about resolving to run a marathon, because  how awesome would it be to post that finish line picture on Facebook?  But starting from a routine where I was running 0 miles per week, that was an unrealistic goal.  I needed something much more modest, and much less Facebook worthy, if I actually wanted to accomplish it.  
• Think of broad categories in which you want to see self-improvement.  For me, 3 categories that I want to work on almost every year are health and fitness, spirituality, and learning.  So I try to choose a resolution in each category to keep things well rounded and avoid burn out in any one area.  
• Keep it specific and measurable.  This means saying exactly what you're going to do and how often you're going to do it.  So, instead of saying "eat healthy" or even "eat more vegetables", I would say "eat a salad containing 4 types of vegetables, 5 times per week".  
• Think about the flow of your year and plan accordingly.  There are some times of year where it's much harder to get things done, and other times where you have extra time and you can make up lost ground.  For our family, January tends to be an unusual month - we are traveling and out of routine, the kids are often sick, sometimes there are snow days - so I am almost always behind on resolutions by the end of the month and it can be very tempting to quit.  But if I go into it knowing that January is a hard month and I'm likely to be behind at first but will be able to catch up in the next several months, then it's not so discouraging.  The corresponding point is that when I get to months where I have extra time and energy, I have to use those well to make the whole thing work.  

And without further pontificating, here are my resolutions & results from 2014 and my resolutions for 2015:

2014:

1) Goal:  Run 100 times in the year.
 Result:  It was slow and painful going at first, but I accomplished this goal by September and managed to turn running back into a normal part of my routine.

2) Goal:  Read through the Bible.
Result:  This one also proceeded in fits and starts - but I got it done (finishing on Dec. 31 around 5 pm) and turned Bible reading back into a regular habit, which I had not done well while the kids were infants.

3) Goal:  Read War and Peace.
Result:  This was a fail.  I chose to try this book because it's supposed to be the greatest novel ever written, and I slogged through 200 painful pages (out of 1000) - but I just couldn't keep going.  This book was not for me.

2015 resolutions:

1) Work on Strength training by completing the pictured program at least once per day, 3 times per week.

2) Use the Book of Common Prayer at least 5 times per week.  I'm not even exactly sure how to use this book, so this will be a pretty experimental thing and I might follow up with another blog post later in the year about why I made this resolution and how it's going.

3) Take a course through Coursera - There are lots of good, free college courses available online, and this year I would like to complete one.  My first choice is to take something related to Joshua (on genetics or child development), but if those aren't available, then I will probably do something in humanities (hopefully related to literature).  If any of you have done Coursera and have specific recommendations, please send them.

I would love to hear your resolutions, or your best tips on making lasting resolutions.  Cheers to 2015!