Here I Go Again

Yes, it's that time of year where we decide to tackle all of our problems in one fell swoop with hopeful expectation that 30 some odd years of bad habits will miraculously dissipate and we will born anew overnight. I can honestly say I am someone who approaches my resolutions each year with great gusto. Am I deterred by the fact that it is only a mere 12 hours into the first day of the new healthy eating and physically active me and I have feasted solely on queso (translation for my UK reader: yummy cheese dip) and tortilla chips supplemented by two diet dr. peppers while lounging around in my PJs having had negative physical activity.. No, no I'm not and I'll tell you why.

First of all, we all have the power to change something about ourselves if we just dedicated a bit of self-discipline to the task at hand. If you really want to lose weight, you can skim off a few snacks and work out a few days a week and voila! the pounds start melting away. If you want to meet someone, you can go out more often, open yourself up for new opportunities and, in my case as least, keep the alcohol intake to a minimum so as to project the best part of you and sure enough there will be suitors galore (whether you're interested in them is yet another question that can be discussed at a later time). If you want to find a new job, take up a new hobby, travel more or re-work your style, it's all possible by creating a simple to-do list for each goal.

I think it's so important to maintain this annual ritual of optimism. And while drastic changes may be seldom, whatever steps we take are always improvements on the self of year before. Go for it! Create a crazy long list, rank it by importance and chart a course to a new you. Don't be discouraged, as Richard Dreyfus' character in What About Bob so aptly states, 'baby steps'!

Here's to an amazing 2010!