New Years Resolution x 12

So this year I did something rather new.  Instead of deciding, arbitrarily to change my life starting New Years Day, I would instead make a series of smaller, more manageable improvements.  See, when you decide you need to turn your life upside down and do everything at once, it makes it, well, too hard.  Also, the moment you break one of your resolutions, you often find yourself figuring you blew it and you cave to all.

Well look no further than this 12 month approach.  Each month you decide to take up one doable challenge.  The idea is that if you cut out a bad habit or addiction for three weeks, you will probably no longer be so controlled by it.  Additionally, if you add a new habit to your regimen for a month, you have a pretty good chance at sticking with it, at least partially so.

Think of something small you can do that would just make your health or life a bit better.  Then do it for a month.  If you’re cutting something bad out of your life, you know you’re not giving up your vice completely, but putting it off for a set amount of time.  If you’re adding something new, you will know that you can accomplish it regularly, and after the month is over you might manage to keep it up.

Try something not so hard first… perhaps give up red meat for a month.  You know you’ll come back to it after the month is over, but when you do come back, you won’t find yourself eating red meat quite as often.  Try to brush your teeth one extra time every day each month and then after that, you might find yourself brushing that extra time five or six times a week. Not bad, right?

March for me, is going to be the month of vegetarianism.  I eat meat pretty often, and I think I would do well to cut back.  Leave a smaller carbon footprint, consume less calories a day, get more vitamins and antioxidants… good, yes?  Come April, I will begin eating meat again, but I’ll have learned lots of new vegetarian friendly recipes and I’ll probably generally not want to eat meat so often.

So think about it, make 12 small resolutions to yourself to just cut back or do that little something extra.  No need to wait till next New Years.  Start now; make small and manageable promises to yourself and then feel good when you stick to them.