Realistic New Years Resolutions

So we are almost at that time of the year again; New Years Day. As a time honored tradition, thousands of people come up with hundreds of thousands of resolutions that they hope to stick to over the coming year. But what is a realistic type of resolution and how can we make sure we stick to them. Here are some ideas of what can be considered realistic and unrealistic New Years Resolutions and why.

First resolution: I want to lose (an enormous amount) of weight this year. From enormous amount I mean anywhere from expecting more than two pounds of weight-loss a week to expecting to lose a large amount in a very 'short' period of time. Hundreds if not thousands of people flock to the gyms and buy some home gym equipment, exercise videos and new walking shoes, to only be totally frustrated when by the end of the first week or two, give or take a week, there is little if any progress to be seen on the scale.

Well first of all, if you really and truly are interested in losing weight you must be doing it for the right reasons and not just because it is a new years resolution or because someone else is doing it or even to impress someone else. You must be doing it for yourself! You must be trying to lose weight because this is what is going to make you happy; the thought of a healthier, slimmer and trimmer you. Not the thoughts of what someone else might think or just to impress someone at a holiday party (or cause everyone else is saying it). If you are really serious about your weight-loss, then know that it took a good while to get that little bit of chubby on your body, so it will take a while to take it back off and it will take some work. You WILL have to exercise and you WILL have to curb your eating habits or change them slightly if you are normally eating on the 'wrong types' of food, like junk food and switch over to healthier foods; more vegetables, frozen or fresh is fine and LEANER meats. YES, exercise is a must. I don't emphasize aerobics as much I do weight lifting. I am a believer in that weight lifting does a body so much more good, even though, aerobics does too, but weight lifting, even in small doses and working up to longer workouts can help you see your body shape up faster and show results quicker and more strikingly than just aerobics alone.

Second resolution: I am not going to quit smoking cold turkey. No more smoking for me, period! Ha! Now that is one for the books. Not only is that unrealistic for some people it is also physically impossible!! The nicotine monster in some who smoke can cause any number of emotions to fly, especially anger. Have you seen that commercial that shows the little angry nicotine addicted sensors in the body? Oh wow that is hilarious BUT it is also true! Unless you have the ultimate of willpower OR you have not been smoking for very long, then the fight to quit smoking may be a long and hard one.

Realistically you should be looking at weaning yourself off of cigarettes. If you smoke a pack a day, cut yourself down say five cigarettes a day for a week or a month; what ever it takes for your body to adjust to that loss. Compensate yourself with something in return for doing such a good job. Make yourself a change jar or allow yourself to have one indulgence more than you normally would (especially if you are trying to lose weight at the same time, which I do NOT recommend!). Make a goal for a reasonable time to quit. Based on a one pack a day habit, I would not make it any sooner than comfortable but a time from of from four weeks (for a short time period habit) to four months or more (for a habit that has been maintained for much longer) and adjusted by the number of packs per day smoked, should be a 'reasonable' amount of time to allow your body to adjust to the 'lack of' nicotine. Any sooner could wind you up in a relapse and since no one likes to say they failed or fell back off the wagon, take it easy on yourself and take your resolution in baby steps and in steps comfortable to you! Don't let anyone rush you or say it should happen sooner or faster. Only YOU will know how quickly your body and mind will allow you to let that habit go.

Third resolution: Procrastination and relaxing/stressing over life or anything in general. Well, procrastination is a seriously hard habit to break. You can tell yourself that you will not put off anything any more. That you will live in the moment, do everything when it is time to do it or before, taking life by its horns and going for the blue ribbon. BUT, in all honesty, we all tend to 'slide' back into our normal habits, those of which we feel comfortable and if procrastinating, waiting till the last minute is the way we have ALWAYS handled what ever we had to do, then that habit, will be severely hard to break. There is good news though! It can be broken with time and some thought out efforts and daily reminders to our self on how we went to do things.

For example: If you always wait till the last minute to write a paper for class and you would love to have the stress off of you of last minute-itis , then plan ahead to break that cycle. Know when your due date is, get your information early on in your project, whether it is reading a book or articles or something online then get your references ready to start writing. Okay, you have already done a lot right there to get prepared to write you paper and it is still early for you, plenty of time to get it done without waiting till the last minute. When you still have a week or two to go before needing to have your paper turned in start writing your paper do a rough first draft the first day, then do another draft the next day or the final paper. IF it is necessary, do your last and final draft of your paper and in three days time in your last week (or sooner if you feel you can do it) with time left to spare, you are done with something you would have normally stayed up all night writing because you had procrastinated in getting done.

This type of steps can be used for anything you procrastinate on from writing papers to writing articles to doing household chores. Each item you procrastinate on, shorten the time up some each time you do it by allowing your self to not be completely weaned instantly BUT allowing yourself some weakness. Knowing each and every time you are getting stronger and handling everyday life giving yourself the ability to handle more and more in life just because you now have the willpower, the strength and determination and the ability to balance life's pressures more easily.

Very similarly you can deal with or handle stress and your relaxation periods easier. You must allow yourself to know that you cannot do everything in life and in life there will always be surprises. That you can definitely count on. So why allow yourself to stress over the little stuff? Life is too short. Put a rubber band on your wrist and snap it every time you try to fall back into stressing over something in which you have no control. Or write yourself some small notes to tell yourself that you are only one person and you do a great job for who you are and what you do. Tell yourself those affirmations each and every day upon waking up: I am a great person; I am but only one person and what I do, I do good; Life is what it is and life is good; I love life and love being surrounded by those whom I love and cherish. Those are only a few affirmations that you can write down to repeat to yourself to help keep yourself from winding up into a tizzy anytime life comes at you with what might seem like a hundred pound mallet.

Lastly: Having a list of New Years Resolutions that you want to accomplish and trying to do them all at once. For example: You want to lose weight and you want to quit smoking and you want to become an accomplished writer, possibly published, you want to be a better/more attentive mother, father, husband, wife, sister or brother, you want to start investing in a 401k and start a Christmas account, you want to try to quit cussing, fighting, fussing, gossiping, whatever it might be; you want to quit it all, starting TODAY!

Realistically that is so not going to happen all at once. Give yourself a break. Write down everything you want to do over the next YEAR. Once you have them written down, number them in their importance on how soon you want to get them done and how important it is for you to complete them. The ones near the bottom of your list, you would like but if you don't get to them, you won't be crushed. The resolutions at the top of your list you will put your full attention to and complete them to the best of your ability, ONE at a time! Know how long each of them are going to take, individually and then figure out if you CAN do more than one at a time. If so, great!! But if not, take them one step at a time, getting as many of your resolutions done at or near the top of your list and the rest can be put on next years list. Maybe by then, they can be put on the top of your list of how important they are to get done and they will get done quicker than something else that may seem more trivial than those resolutions.

Enjoy life. Have fun and live. Don't put yourself through such stresses as thinking that if you do not complete these resolutions, again, that you area failure. You are NOT! They are just not as important to you as other things are in life and you should pride yourself in whatever it is that you have found to be more important and more importantly than that, pride yourself in the dedication you have in your life to do what you do well. Resolutions are just words written on paper, no on something set in stone and the world will NOT fall apart if you do not complete them. Life is about having fun, having a good life, spending time with our families and making some money while in the process of it all. Don't sweat the small stuff and resolutions are just that. Some small fun stuff in life we give ourselves to drive ourselves crazy. Have fun with it and you will find your resolutions may not only happen they may happen sooner and with a better vigor than if you stressed yourself over getting them done!