Clean Slate

Here we go into another brand-spanking New Year! Resolutions wait in the wings as we stare at the clean slate, trying to decide which ones will play a role in this year’s ambitions. What an exciting time to renew our convictions and determine to discover hidden abilities and desires within ourselves!

Many of us will resurrect previous resolutions that expired before becoming full-fledged habits in our lives, such as exercising or dieting. While exercise and health are certainly great aspects to improve upon, I have found that focusing on an event rather than a concept is much more effective. For example, rather than say, “I’m going to lose 400 pounds this year” say, “I’m going to run that marathon in September.” If my goal is to be prepared for an event, with a very definite “deadline,” I will work toward that; if my goal is to simply begin running, chances are slim that I will have enough motivation to continue running through the whole year. We all want a reward for our efforts, no matter what we do, and even finishing an arduous race is reward enough for exercising. Remember to reward yourself for achieving success, whether you run a race or finally clean out that cluttered garage.

Some of us will, at this point, have realized that every previous year’s resolutions came to naught, and therefore refuse to engage in the New Year’s tradition. Should you find yourself looking at resolutions negatively, pick something that you wouldn’t normally view as a resolution. Something as simple as visiting all the National Parks in Utah in 2011 could be considered a resolution. Or consider an “If – Then” resolution: “If I visit Arches, then I’ll visit Zion next; and if I visit Zion, then I’ll visit Bryce…” A lot of the time we need to break up resolutions in order to make them easier to accomplish. We often feel like failures if we endeavor to do some great thing, get halfway there and then either quit or we are forced to abandon the goal. Looking back, though, we will typically find that we were quite successful in one aspect or another, or that we learned some valuable information during our journey toward that resolution. Cherish that new information and apply it, otherwise the experience truly is in danger of becoming a complete failure.

Still others of us will build upon a resolution from last year that was successful and create a bigger and better resolution for this year. First, let me congratulate you if you did indeed follow through with any of your 2010 resolutions. The human experience would not be much of an experience if the concept of progress were not an integral part of it all. Perhaps your resolution last New Year’s was to learn to ski; this year’s resolution should build upon that: learn to snowboard, or pick up cross-country skiing, or even enter a local ski competition. Remember, life is a downward moving escalator: if you’re not working hard to reach the top, the escalator is taking you back down to the bottom.

I hope you are as enthusiastic about setting new goals for 2011 as I am. Though life is one continuous flow of time, and we’ll never get the chance to be 20 again, the New Year gives us all a chance to reflect on the last 365 days and resolve to expand our knowledge, abilities or experiences in the next 365 days. Happy New Year and best of success in your 2011 ventures!