3 posts from January 2009

Those of you who know me "for reals" know that I am exercise averse. I pretty much abhor anything that might make me break a sweat or raise my heartrate. I did, for a little while, succumb to the allure of waking up early and doing 30 minutes of yoga a day, but alas, the need for sleep (or actually, the need to stay up and knit at night) has won out and I find myself not dragging myself out of bed at 6am, like I am supposed to do.

My old friend Rachael, (who Always Wanted Four, btw) blogged recently how another blogging buddy committed to 500/50 for 2009. That would mean running 500 miles and reading 50 books for the year. Well, Rachael, about 99.9% of the time the voice of reason, realized that perhaps, 365/26 was a more realistic goal for her. Kudos to Rachael for A) being a runner who has actually competed in a marathon and B) realizing that 1 book a week was more her speed. 

Unlike Rachael, I am not a runner, but thanks to Rodney Yee and my new Wii Fit Balance Board thanks Santa! perhaps I can average out 30 minutes a day by hook or by crook or by snow shovel as I discovered the other snowy day. Like Rachael, I am an Olympic tuner-outer and will devour a book until it is finished as evidenced by the Great Harrypalooza of 2007. 

Every January, I start to rethink my housekeeping habits and shying away from resolutions. And I mean staying far, far away from making resolutions. Because in my mind, once a resolution is made, then dammit! It's meant to be broken! And so therefore, I (think I) trick myself by not committing to the resolution and so therefore, if I fall off the wagon, its okay because it wasn't really a real resolution. Clear as mud?

So no real commitments like exercising on a regular basis or eating healthier or spending less money. Instead, I aim to just do them as I remember them. That way, I won't mess up as often. I get a success rate on this method of behavior change of about 25%. Not great, by any stretch, but at least it's better than if I didn't try. And I try to only tackle one thing a month. So instead of making 12 "I'm gonna try (fill in desired new habit)" for January, I make only one. And for January, I'm going to TRY think of the other 11 things I'm going to do for the year.

As for housekeeping habits, I am forever resolving to keep my home cleaner, declutter more, organize better, blah, blah, blah. Actually, I'm kind of addicted to housekeeping websites, organizing books, planners, moleskine notebooks and the whole shebang. HOWEVER, you would never know that by looking at my house! Rather, instead of getting more organized, I think I'm going to just try to work on keeping the crap out. Declutter in every aspect of my life. That way the stuff I really do want, like blogging, can find a way to creep back in.

Now that I think about it, during one of my other January brainstorming sprees in during a previous year when I attempted to craft my personal mission statement (don't laugh. It works.) I hammered out something similar. Maybe I should peek through those old journals and see if I can find what I had written down then.

And now, because I hate blog posts without pictures, I give you my mother and two of my sisters and myself..and my Dad in the background!