Resolutions (or Commitments)

My friend tweeted today about resolutions.

I realized I like the idea of committing to a change rather than making a resolution which seems somewhat abstract.

I have some big life altering commitments I intend to make on New Year’s Eve.  I also have some rather simple changes I will promise myself to make.

Life Altering Changes

Ok, that sounds very big.  I have been doing some deep introspection lately (a vacation visiting the folks will do that to ya).  I think 2009 was crappy.  Seriously.  So I am trying to evaluate why it was so crappy and how much of that crappiness I had a say in, meaning, of the crap, what could I or did I control. Once I determine that (which I am not quite done doing), I then will need to reconcile why I didn’t control 2009 better and how I can prevent repeating the negative (or in some cases stop being passive) in 2010.  So far it does seem like about 50-60% of what was crap I could have affected in some way. 

• Most important and at the top of my list- I need to forgive myself for things that already happened.  I need to stop dwelling on why or how I allowed certain things to happen and instead begin healing and moving on.  If I can commit to at least trying to do that, that’ll be a HUGE step forward.
• I need to re-focus myself on my friends and family.  ’nuff said.
  

Simple Changes

There are some habits I have that I do not like, but should be relatively easy to alter.  These aren’t life changing, but I think they are important.  In no particular order:

• No more bottled water- use stainless steel Klean Kanteen bottle
  I know how important it is to drink water, but I have issues with taste.  To me, water only tastes good when it is very cold and bottled and preferably Dasani or some other ‘enhanced’ brand.  But buying 24 packs of bottled water every couple weeks is $$ and bad for the environment.  I have a Klean Kanteen and the few times I tried to use it with filtered water at work, it tasted like metal… but I commit to trying again. *Disclosure- neither Klean Kanteen nor Dasani sponsored this post 😉
• For my morning coffee – mix 50% decaf with 50% regular.  No more mochas/lattes…
  Besides the expense of the morning mocha, and the totally unneccessary calories, I used to drink only decaf… and felt better when I did.  I think I need a little caffeine in my morning, so I commit to having half caf coffee in the morning.
• Brush/rinse fully at night
  I used to brush my teeth after every meal in addition to morning and night.  Somewhere in this past year I got lazy about my evening brushing.  I would do a quickie rinse with mouth wash and hit the sack.  But teeth are really important and I need to respect them.  I commit to brushing purposefully every morning and evening.
• I AM GIVING UP FRENCH FRIES
  at least for 2010.  do-able.  right?

I know it seems like these are ‘all about me’, but if I make these changes (especially the life changing ones), I will be a better friend, co-worker, relative, and so on.

Happy new year.  I sincerely wish you all the best.  If we’ve met (in person or virtually) I am grateful for it, and if we haven’t yet, I can’t wait til we do!!

Cheers!