2 Thoughts/Suggestions as you approach 2012.

1. It’s not about change – but improvement.  Change is tough.  It involves a complete shift, probably changing environment, habits, behaviors, and a lot of other resources and variables that may or may not be within our grasp.  What we should all really trying for is improvement.  Rather than turn 180 degrees in a different direction, we should focus on taking steps forward, one at a time.  When we break our change into small steps towards improvement, it does two things – makes our change more attainable and allows us to constantly be succeeding rather than failing at our complete plan for change.

There are very few out there that are totally horrible people who need total change.  However, we start comparing ourselves to each other and start thinking that we need radical and immediate change in order for us to have value or live a life worthy of the air and carbon we consume.   When we look at magazines and elsewhere for who we should be and how we should look, total change seems necessary.   When we stop comparing ourselves to others and start staring solely in the mirror, improvement is what we need.  Improvement is possible daily and doesn’t have to be revolutionary.  Improvement involves learning from failures but continuing to make mistakes.  Improvement involves 2 steps forward, 1 step backward.  Improvement involves sticking with a plan and a vision even when there are setbacks or we make a few decisions counter to that vision.

2. New Month’s Resolutions.  By March, probably even February, if you are like me,  you have completely fallen away from your New Year’s Resolution.  Once we fail, we move on and revert back to the person we were the previous year.  I have a tactic I’m going to use in 2012 – New Month’s Resolutions.  I am going to break my goals for 2012 into monthly goals and monthly resolutions.  This tactic will allow me to have smaller successes, but also to change the focus for a particular month.

I realize that at the New Year we all feel like there is a clean slate, that we are on the same page with everyone else, all striving to revolutionize our lives in one day.  I know because I’ve gone to the gym in January before but know what it looked like in April.  However, we can create improvement by being realistic and logical about how we go about approaching our lives.  When we break our goals and resolutions down into smaller pieces we can have small successes.  Success is what motivates us to feel like we can win the bigger battles.  More importantly, we have the ability to alter what parts of our goals we are focused on.  For example, I hate to run when it’s cold and I hate to run on a treadmill. This year I will focus on physical fitness aspects of my goals in the warmer months.

Write your goals and resolutions down.  Think big but break them into smaller bites.  Be realistic.  Realize that no matter whether we succeed or fail at accomplishing something that we still have worth, purpose and value to ourselves and to those closest to us.  Regardless of anything, strive to focus on what’s important this year.  Speaking of – I’m off to enjoy the day with my family.