The Slippery Slope of New Year’s Resolutions
While I don’t believe that January 1st is the only day of the year we can embrace life change, there is something so hopeful about the start of a new year. So, last year I joined many other people and set some New Year’s Resolutions. One of which, was to try and keep my cool, even when the world around me is hot.
Well, we weren’t even a few hours into the new year when a terrible head cold descended upon every member of my house (i.e., the world around me was warming up). I did a pretty good job of keeping my cool for the first 12 or so hours of the illness.
When my daughter, probably due to head congestion, was fighting every attempt at bedtime I initiated, conditions in my house went from warm to hot – and sadly, so did I. I’ll spare you the gory details, but let’s just there was a temper tantrum, and not on the part of my daughter.
So, did I give up on my New Year’s Resolution to keep my cool? Nope! I kept working on it all year! And, I’m still planning to work on it again this year!
Every breath I take provides a fresh opportunity to make change in my life. There will be failures and setbacks, but I won’t be defeated!
Are you going to join me in seizing every moment as an opportunity to improve? What resolutions are you committed to – no matter how many setbacks you face?
There’s nothing like a ‘little’ family illness to bring out the ‘hot’ in us! I have been there many times myself….it’s so embarrassing to have a temper tantrum in front of the kids–whose tantrums you are trying to curb! One time, I found that I carried that ‘hotness’ with me….for months and months. I turned into Yelling Mommy. I was rotten and no fun and mean. I spent several months working on getting rid of the yelling. I still revert sometimes, but much less often. While it is nice to get a fresh start at the beginning of the year, we can always start anew at the beginning of each day!
It’s so empowering to remember that we can turn around at anytime or with every breath – when we blow it or don’t meet our goal as we dream, to keep trying, persevering with the help of encouraging words from family & friends – even baby steps of progress make a difference. This post is encouraging, Jen. Thanks!