I’ve noticed blogs that say “Make resolutions!” Then there are those that say, “Don’t make resolutions!” Then “Let us just walk right, talk right and spit right, and everything will be OK!” Worst of all: “Ignore it all and stay the same way!!” Hey! There is always room for improvement.

So my thought is, “Christmas is coming.” I know! So profound. I owe it all to Alpha Hubby. Why? Because he says it. He says it ALL. THE. TIME.

His meaning is this: we make promises to ourselves to do better or make changes and then we break those promises to ourselves. We decide to lose some weight. We decide to exercise more. We decide to eat healthy. We decide to be nicer to people. We decide to write that book or make that music CD.

Christmas is coming! Maybe this year we start out gung ho and do right… for about two weeks. Then life gets in the way, interest wanes or we get tired of eating carrots and celery (smile). The next thing we know, Christmas is here and we didn’t do any of the things we wanted to do. The time got away from us.

Christmas is coming. The days will pass whether we do what we said we wanted to do… or not. Christmas is coming no matter what we are doing. You can’t stop the days from passing. They are going to pass anyway.

Do we want Christmas to get here and we’ve at least made an attempt at changes we desired? Or do we want it to get here and feel a huge sense of disappointment in ourselves that we’ve let ANOTHER YEAR pass by without doing what we wanted?

What is the answer to stick-to-it-ness? Heck if I know. What? You thought this was going to continue to be a deep, profound blog post? I’m leaving the profoundness to Alpha Hubby. Christmas is coming. It will get here and we will have accomplished what we wanted… or NOT.

I guess it all depends on how badly we really want it. If we really do, then we will find the way to do whatever it is. We each must find out for ourselves. No one can force you to do the doing.

As for me, I’m following the principles I learned studying people who’ve walked in their dreams: write those long term goals down. By the way, almost everyone believes it’s important to write their goals, but not everyone does it. Dr. Gail Matthews researched goal-setting thoroughly and discovered that by the simple fact of writing your goals down, it gives you a 42% greater probability of achieving the goal – just by writing them down! Of course, not writing your goals is sure-fire way to fail

Then I realized I needed to figure out the steps to get there. Break those steps down into manageable bites – short term goals. Then, do something every single day toward that goal, no matter how simple or complex that something is.

How do you eat an elephant?  It’s HUGE!

One bite at a time.  Hee hee hee.

If you only view that elephant as one giant goal, you will become overwhelmed and Christmas will get here and you will still be staring at the elephant. Begin with one bite at a time (I know, I know, it sounds gross but stick with me here).

Break your goal down into small bites and Christmas will get here and you will be closer to that goal or have completed it!

Say you want to lose 50 pounds. Don’t focus on 50 pounds. Focus on 5 pounds. Or 1 or 2 or what you can do. Focus on what you can do today toward the goal of losing one pound. Today, this meal, what can you eat right? How many minutes can you walk today? Bites.

Or that book you want to write? Write down those chapter ideas. Figure out a character. Decide what your chapter titles will be. Research what others have done. Write your goal number of pages for today.  Bites.

Those bites – little accomplishments toward your ultimate goal – will help you stay on track and keep you from focusing on what hasn’t been done yet. Instead you can focus on what you have done toward that goal

And the ultimate goal for 2017 should be this – SAY IT WITH ME –

“This year I will enjoy life more. I will stress less or not at all. I will jump in water puddles. I will dance around the house and in the rain. I will sing at the top of my lungs. I will surround myself with things I think are beautiful. Every single day, I will do something nice just for me. I will be more grateful and I will express that gratitude. I will love Alpha Hubby (insert your love here) even more fiercely. I will choose to be happy!”

So I will leave this semi-profound blog post with a poke and grin:  here is Alpha Hubby’s goal for the New Year. I know, I know. But we can’t ignore him. He refuses to be ignored.