New Year's Resolutions and McDonald's

Ah, the time for resolutions is upon us...pretty reliably every year I make a resolution involving some sort of working out and something like that. Like a majority of the American populous, by the time February something-or-other has rolled around, I've more than forgotten about my workout commitment; by this point I've started frequenting the drive-thru more than before and am already sleeping through my classes. What can I say? McDonald's is delicious. But for those couple of weeks in January I, like a large portion of the the resolution-creating masses, am dedicated to making this year THE YEAR, the one where I really do it. For those couple weeks, I'm really effective at whatever it is I've set to. And this year I'm going to use that to my advantage.

I once started eating baked chips with my lunch instead of the normal fried ones because they were "healthier." My suitemate, Kit, pointed out that unless I was planning on swapping out for those baked chips on a long-term scale, there was pretty much no point in me even trying them. Changing to baked chips for one day wouldn't have any effect on my overall health or habits. And for a couple weeks or so, I made that switch. Then Cheetos started calling my name, and, well, that was the end of that game. Moral of the story: Don't commit yourself to things you're not that interested in staying committed to. Maybe if I'd combined eating better with a workout plan, or a food journal I'd have actually accomplished something with my chip change. But the swap was just an impulsive idea I came up with when standing in line.

I think there can be a lot of power in the New Year's resolution. The beginning of a new year can be the chance for you to make that critical change you've been looking for, whether it's something like quitting smoking or working out. My recommendations:

1. Resolve to do something important and achievable. Make this the day that you do something positive for yourself, and improve yourself as a whole. At the same time, don't resolve to quit smoking cold turkey if you're going through a pack and a half a day. Be realistic and safe; resolving to cut down your smoking by a cigarette a day or something like that makes much more sense.
   
2. Keep track of your resolution. Get a calendar and check off when you successfully do whatever it is you resolve, whether you run that mile and a half or drive past the Dairy Queen without buying something.
3. Reward yourself for long-term successes. Do something that you enjoy for every couple of weeks that you keep your resolution going. Go out to a nice dinner, buy yourself the game or whatever that you've been thinking about. Give yourself an incentive to keep the trend going.
4. Take yourself seriously. Part of holding to a resolution is understand you've got the potential to do it. There will be difficult parts and times when you don't think you can carry through with it, regardless of what the goal is. That's part of commitment as a whole; staying with anything for a stretch of time will bring on stress and will likely make you want to quit at some point in time. But understand that you've got the potential to carry through it if you really set yourself to it.

My resolution? Write at least once for myself every day. Whether it's this blog or another one, fiction or whatever, I'm going to take time every day to do what's important to me. After all, it's hard to get published when you don't have anything written. ::grins::

Anyway, Happy New Year, Struck Lightning readers. Thanks for sticking around, and I'll see you in 2010.

-Josh