Eldy's Pocket: 2013: The Year of No Excuses

One thing I love about the start of the new year is the collective energy and excitement about having a fresh start, wiping your slate clean of challenges from the last 12 months and people’s intentions to make themselves a better person in the year to come.

I know a lot of people who aren't fans of new year’s resolutions.“They never work for me…” “The new year on the calendar doesn’t mean my life will be any different…” Everyone has their own reason but when it comes down to it, whether or not your resolutions are successful or not is all up to you.

If you are one of those people, why have your resolutions been unsuccessful? Are you asking too much of yourself? Are you unwilling to commit to your resolution before it even starts? Did you not motivate yourself throughout the year? Someone once told me, “If something is important to you, you find a way. If it is unimportant, you find an excuse.” I have to say it to myself as a reminder sometimes. If your goals are unimportant to you, chances are you will not fulfill them. This year when considering a resolution, choose something that is truly important to you. It doesn’t have to be life changing. If you want to exercise more, try committing to a 15 minute walk a day rather than a marathon. If you want to be more organized, take 10 minutes of your night to get things in order. Both of those goals seem small and only take up a tiny part of your day but at the end of the week you have racked up 1 hour and 45 minutes of movement in your week that you wouldn’t normally have (hey, that can add up to around 350+ calories) and the same amount of time organizing equals major progress. It’s not all about writing down a list of goals either, it may help to think about it in a different way. Are you perfect? Probably not. Pick one way to make yourself a better person this year. A new year's resolution can be a reminder to yourself that there is still room to grow and learn.

As you know, I don’t need any excuse to set new goals for myself. I set mini-resolutions for myself each month since it makes the task of completing them all seem less daunting. Allowing myself to reevaluate goals at the start of every month allows me the freedom of adapting them as I see fit. Rather than setting goals for the year in addition to my monthly goals, I have decided on a theme for my upcoming year. I am calling 2013 The Year of No Excuses. I’ve put it out in to the universe and made my intentions clear that I would like to make this year a productive, creative, inspired and focused year. I no longer have the excuse of my school workload, inconsistent class schedules or exams so I would truly like to make the most of my time and efforts in 2013.