Resolutions?

Are you one of those people that does the whole soul searching where the heck did the year go and how come I didn't accomplish a single thing all year guess I'd better make some new year's resolutions and maybe even keep some of them next year kind of person?

No? Me neither. Well, maybe the soul searching where the heck did the year go part of it. And the how come I didn't accomplish a single thing all year part of it.

What is it about the new year that makes us all run around making resolutions to improve ourselves-resolutions that will last a week or two and then we'll revert to our slovenly ways and then feel extra bad about ourselves because we can't keep a few resolutions? The whole fresh start, brand new year full of possibilities thing? Clean slate and all that? A spring clean of our bad habits? Peer pressure from all around us to at least pretend to join in with our fellow resolution makers and find something (preferably easy) to resolve to change about ourselves or our lives in this brand spanking new year?

Aren't there some studies about how depression rates go up a few weeks after the new year when everybody breaks their new year's resolutions? Are resolutions really a good idea in terms of our mental health?

Open up a newspaper on new year's day and every store ad will be full of specials on slim fast, diet pills, exercise equipment, and workout clothes. Get fit and lose weight in the new year! So, we'll all run out and help the economy a little by buying treadmills and stair steppers and workout clothes, only to find that in a few weeks the treadmill is just taking up space in your bedroom and has become an extra clothes rack (great place to store the workout clothes that got worn once). Happens every year.

So, join with me in NOT making resolutions that you can't or don't want to keep. Just make a few small ones that are easy to do, don't take a lot of time, and won't make you feel like a total failure who doesn't deserve to walk this earth because you can't keep that resolution.

Here are mine:

Eat an apple every day.
Spend more time petting the cats and giving each one some daily special attention time.
Keep a ledger book of our expenses, complete with attaching important receipts and warranties to the appropriate expense page, so that next December I'm not sitting here wondering what the heck we did with all our money all year.
Do a quick once over cleaning of the bathroom each morning. Okay, this one is setting myself up for failure, but I'll try anyway.

And that's all the resolutions I'm going to make. Oh, and take a walk most days-notice I didn't say every day here. There are some days in the summertime when you are advised not to leave the house because the air pollution is so bad here. Hey, maybe a treadmill would come in handy after all!