We are seven weeks into 2014 and I am willing to place bets on the percentage of people who have fallen off the path of sticking to their New Years Resolutions. I'd say about 86% of people are no longer attempting to conquer their weight loss, better organization, and not posting as many drunk pictures to Facebook. And I can't say I blame them.
For me, the main purpose of New Years Resolutions is to create goals for myself to be better than I was the previous year, in whatever way I see fit. This year, I signed up for a Half Iron Man and I also have the goal to switch careers and return to school. I am scared to death of all of those things but, simultaneously so excited about the possibilities. In my opinion, setting goals and being afraid of them is a good thing and shows that attempting to accomplish such endeavors will change you, regardless of if you succeed or fail.
Starting new things is hard, and sticking to them is even harder. In this time between New Years and Lent, we have the Super Bowl, Valentines day, St Patricks Day and Mardi Gras; four holidays full of gluttony and partying. These holidays can be tough on sticking to goals because who doesn't want to sit in bed and enjoy pints of ice cream and wine on Valentines day, or shamrocked for St Patricks day?
Don't get me wrong, I am the first to tell you that I can easily down a pint of ice cream in one sitting and hold my own with the best of them along Dauphin Street (because Mardi Gras in the United States actually originated in Mobile, not New Orleans). But, I don't allow these things to get in the way of my goals. There are actually very few things I allow to temporarily set me back, and one of them is not fear.
I refuse to allow fear to be a factor in my life. I am extremely blessed to have a supportive family, group of friends and boyfriend who will stand beside me even if I leap and fall flat on my face. Not reaching my goals is not failure, it is only a temporary setback. It is lessons learned, plans reconstructed, goals reevaluated, and a larger fire in my belly to succeed.
Why do we so often let one setback completely destroy our self confidence we have worked years to build, or deter us from creating a new path for success? Why do we let fear take such a grip on our hearts and minds that we don't believe in ourselves?
I say it's time for that to stop! Let's move forward together, accomplish what we started, and make 2014 our bitch . There are 45 more weeks for us to tackle and perfect our ambitions, but the time to start is today.
By bettering ourselves, we will better this world. Accomplish your weight loss goal, keep your stuff more organized, show up to work on time, perform random acts of kindness, complete an athletic feat, carry out your goals, whatever they may be.
Most importantly, do what makes you happy, makes you excited, and makes your heart beat fastest.
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