It's January 1st

You know what that means! Time write a generic post about goals and stuff! Actually, I will try my very best not to do that thing. It may have something to do with goals, but I will try to make it as original and non-generic as possible.

With it being the start of a new year one hears a lot of talk about resolutions and goals. Things that were great and not so great about the past year and hopes and aspirations for the year to come. While this is all well and good (and believe me, I am just as guilty as the next person of doing these very things) I sometimes wonder if people use things like New Years as an excuse to avoid change. Change is hard and can be down right unpleasant. It means you have to stretch and grow in some way. As humans, we cling to what is familiar and comfortable. For example, in experiences living abroad, on those rare, happy moments when I come across what could very well be the only jar of peanut butter in all of Ukraine, I was willing to pay just about anything to get it. Not because it was a peanut butter laced with gold but simply because in this situation where everything was SO different from what I knew (especially the food) I wanted that tiny jar of familiarity.

I wonder then, if that is why we are so reluctant to change. Why we wait until New Years to resolve to be better. What's wrong with any given Wednesday? If you want to change, do it. All that really matters is that once you make that resolution, whenever it may be, that you mean it an that you stick to it. That the change is real and lasting. However, if you are like me and you fall back into old habits or patterns rather easily, don't wait a whole year to start over. Take a deep breath, evaluate your life, and begin again. That is the beauty of our ability to choose. We can always make the choice to begin again at any time. Oh how grateful I am for that principle!

So this year, don't be discouraged if you miss that day of exercising that you had promised yourself you would do. Begin again. If you get a B when you had resolved to get a 4.0, as long as you gave it your best effort, move on and be content.

As for the coming year, in the words of a very wise man, Joseph B. Wirthlin: "Come what may and love it!" That is exactly what I intend to do. Have a super 2012!