Sticking to Your New Year's Resolutions

Each new year, Ancient Babylonians would strip the king of his clothes and banish him from the kingdom. They would have a festival and do as they pleased until the king came back. When the king came back, they would go back to working and doing what they were supposed to do. If you have ever wondered who started the whole deal with making New Year's Resolutions, you can blame it on the Babylonians.

However, you can blame it on yourself and your peers for pressuring you to make and keep New Year's Resolutions. There is no law that says you have to make them. It is only a custom that has been passed down generation after generation and usually ends up making people feel bad about themselves because they are rarely able to keep them. On the other hand, there is great satisfaction in being able to stick to one. So if you feel you must make a New Year's Resolution, the best one to make is one that you can actually keep.

The most common New Year's Resolution is to lose weight. Some other common resolutions are helping others, spending time with family and getting organized. There are more resolutions that are broken than are kept, but with a few changes in the wording and meaning of your New Year's Resolution, you will be keeping more of them.

If your resolution is to get organized, make a resolution to get rid of things that you no longer need. You could also make a resolution to give to people in need. By giving away the things you no longer need, you will have been able to keep two resolutions. A good solution to eliminating the time and effort it takes to find someone who needs what you have is to post it on freecycle.org. The person who needs it or knows of someone who does will come to your house and pick it up.

Instead of making a resolution to lose weight, make a resolution to eat healthier. Start setting aside one night a week to cook a meal and sit down and eat with your family. You could also make a resolution to spend more time with your family and there again, you are keeping two resolutions. You are replacing good food with junk you could be eating one night a week and spending quality time with your family. After a year, you will have probably shed a few pounds as well.

Other New Year's Resolutions people make are to quit smoking and drinking. However, being a smoker myself, I know how hard it is to quit and how disappointing it can be when you start smoking again. Sometimes it is best to work on changing smaller things in your life first. Having things you don't need makes you feeling unorganized which can leave you feeling stressed. Not spending time with your family makes them compete for your attention even more when you are there spending time with them. Eliminating some of the stress in your life, no matter how small it is will put you in a better place to be able to quit and stay quit.

Make resolutions based on things you want to do, not things you feel you need to do. Focus on things that you know will make you happy and not feeling like you will be denying yourself things to the point it will make you miserable. Everybody knows there are things in their life they should change, but sometimes change does not come as fast as you want it to come.