Thread: Resolutions.

So I went to the gym today for the first time in a couple of weeks and there were about a thousand cars there. Happy post New Year at a gym!!! Got me thinking about what an annual cycle this is at the gym, and about how by march things are back to normal. After seeing this cycle for years and years I can't tell if it is laughable or terribly depressing.

Do you make resolutions? Why or why not? If you do, do you care to share them?

I like the one I saw on FB. My resolution is to remember to write 2013 when I have to date something.

Nope I don't. If I want to change something I change it. I don't do it because of a date.

I never set resolutions, because so often they fail and it's so disheartening. Instead I set goals of things I want done throughout the year. I haven't done any this year, but my 'goals' for 2012 were to buy our first house (done) get pregnant (done) go out on more hikes in the summer (not done), etc.

I find anything totally set in stone like "I'm going to quit smoking" or "I want to loose 20, 50, 75 etc pounds" if you backslide once, it's enough to call off your resolution and not try any more.

You know, i thought about "going back to the gym" for a resoultion. I had been going for a couple of years straight, and then things got so crazy and my support team of people i went with also started floundering and I lost the groove, which doesn't come naturally to me.

Honestly, i can't decide if going to the gym stresses me more, or less. I feel better physically when i go, and I like the time to myself...but the stress of doing the kids shuffle with Seamus, and how stressed out HE becomes when I'm gone makes it extremely hectic too. I found a sigh of relief coming to me when I stopped going and i could come home and get the laundry done early and the house back in order.

I can only go to the gym at the very end of the day...when Seamus gets out of work. Because the gym doesn't offer childcare in the late afternoon, only mornings which doesn't work well for working parents. So that means he has to go home with all of them and try to get dinner cooked and served while I'm gone and when i get home he's often kinda grumpy. Maybe if i could find a way to work it into the middle of my work day it would be better. But I'm at home and the gym is 25 minutes away.

Soooo....other than that, i have not considered any other resolutions! I wish i liked running. I can do that right outside of my house, but i just don't like it.

My yoga teacher says she doesn't like resolutions because they are all about what's wrong with us, what we don't like about ourselves, what we think we SHOULD be doing that we're not, etc. She said she prefers to look ahead into a new year and decide what your focus should be, something positive that you can work towards vs. some flaw you have that makes you angry at yourself.

I agree with her completely, and I have something I'm focusing on for this year that is important to my own peace of mind.

My other goals, whether they're about health or losing weight or whatever, are the same goals I've been working on for a while. But I don't need to berate myself or set myself up to be disappointed...not something worth adding to my life. I have enough sh** going on already.

Dh and I resolved to spend more time with each other, but we are not thinking of it as like a new years resolution, more of just a time to keep what is important in the fore front of our minds.
I want to continue studying nutrition this year, being really studying it for about 6 months so not really a new years resolution either.

Originally Posted by freddieflounder101

My yoga teacher says she doesn't like resolutions because they are all about what's wrong with us, what we don't like about ourselves, what we think we SHOULD be doing that we're not, etc. She said she prefers to look ahead into a new year and decide what your focus should be, something positive that you can work towards vs. some flaw you have that makes you angry at yourself.

I agree with her completely, and I have something I'm focusing on for this year that is important to my own peace of mind.

My other goals, whether they're about health or losing weight or whatever, are the same goals I've been working on for a while. But I don't need to berate myself or set myself up to be disappointed...not something worth adding to my life. I have enough sh** going on already.

I like this and pretty much agree with it. DH and I started a system of setting a weekly goal last year, and sharing it with one another on Sunday nights ~ we also set annual goals, 5 year goals, and 10 year goals......My main one year goal got flat busted with the breaking of my hip but oh well. Sh!t happens! I learned bigger life lessons in that experience than I would have in accomplishing my goal, so I guess if you remain flexible with your goals its all good?

I think that the whole Christmas season is so crazy around here that the desire to evaluate and look ahead a little is a natural one ~ I don't know that I really set resolutions but I do take this little bit of quiet time to reassess and look forward to all that is coming, so I guess I do try to take this time to refocus some or adjust my sights a little. We have a lot of change coming up this year so its helpful to set my sights on what is coming or where I hope to be personally or as a wife or as a family this time next year, I guess, and we do write them down. My short term memory is awful thanks to the good times I had in my early 20's so blogging it or keeping it written down is a necessity

The biggest things I want to change in my life are so hard to convert to real world goals. For example

I want to be more patient
I want to enjoy the smaller moments more
I want to have less anxiety (which seems to have gotten worse this past year)

I find it hard to turn those into tangible goals...you know, so that I recognize those moments when i need to actually 'implement' them.

If that makes any sense.

Originally Posted by KimPossible

The biggest things I want to change in my life are so hard to convert to real world goals. For example

I want to be more patient
I want to enjoy the smaller moments more
I want to have less anxiety (which seems to have gotten worse this past year)

I find it hard to turn those into tangible goals...you know, so that I recognize those moments when i need to actually 'implement' them.

If that makes any sense.

So maybe you can translate some of that into more actionable items. I bet that all of that comes from not focusing on the present, that even when you're IN the moment, your mind is darting ahead and behind and around, so you're impatient as you've moved on in your mind, you're not relishing the small moments when they happen, and you're anxious for the same reason, thinking ahead or back. So maybe your focus can be to be more present, and there are great ways to do that. Yoga and meditation classes have taught me to stop and breathe, full deep breaths, just enough to give your mind something to do and re-center yourself. Does that make any kind of sense? It may help you find a more tangible way to make yourself happier. (Mostly it just sounds like you want to be happier and less stressed, an awesome goal in my book.)