Resolutions Resolved

Usually around the first part of October I start to prepare for Christmas. Even then with all the planning, saving, making, and baking, I have done well if I am ready within days of the big event.

I am grateful for Christmas and the emotions it brings. I love the way it seems to bring out the best in others, I feel joy in giving, I feel gratitude in the sacrifices that others make in behalf of my family and myself, and certainly most important, I am grateful for the remembrance of the birth of our Savior and every wonderful blessing that that event entails.

However, each year as Christmas comes and goes, I am often left with a feeling of sadness. I hate to see it all end. Though I always vow I will try to keep “Christmas in my heart all year” it seems the feeling changes as sure as the season.

The New Year brings with it a time for setting goals and for me it’s one of the most depressing times of the year. I always attempt to change the impossible. Every year is the year (like every other year for the last ten or fifteen years) I want to lose 150 lbs. and to do that, I will stay away from everything but carrot sticks. That goal starts at midnight on Dec.31st and lasts clear up until I wake up on New Years Day and see what is still sitting on the kitchen table… all the yummy treats from our friends, family, and neighbors. I then make a vow to start as soon as I have polished off all the temptation before me. After all, I would hate to throw it all away. There are people who went to a lot of work and expense for us and it’d be really rotten of us to not eat it after all they did for us.
Then there is always the thought that haunts me and stops me from throwing anything away unnecessarily; in breaded in me from the days when my mother forced me to eat things on my plate that I thought were icky. “There are starving children in this world…" So, you see? You can’t just throw things away! Before I know it, there goes all my good intentions and rather than needing to lose 150 lbs., I have gained 150 more! I hated the whole “News Years Resolution” thing.

Until recently. I have done some thinking and I have changed my mind. Or rather, after a lot of thinking, I have decided it’s my attitude that needed some adjusting.

If I am going to pick goals that are impossible to achieve, I am destined to fail.
President Gordon B. Hinckley said, “Try a little harder to be a little better.” I can certainly do that. I can set smaller, reachable goals and feel good about what little success I can obtain rather than feel guilty and ashamed of myself for the continual failings with the impossible goals.
Rather than changing every single thing about me and planning to do an extreme makeover from the inside out, I can pick a few things and start there. Once I have accomplished them, I will go on to something else.

I realize that it’s not a new concept I am writing about here, but it’s a new concept for me to try. My problem is I tend to be a perfectionist. I want everything to change and I want it all done now. (I also tend to be a little impatient as well) I see too many imperfections with myself and I want them done away with immediately. Unfortunately, that’s just not realistic. No wonder I have set myself up to be destined for failure when it comes to goal setting.

So, this year I am going to do it different. This year I will try harder than ever to achieve what I set out to accomplish.
With a new attitude, I have set a few goals. With renewed hope, a new beginning of sorts, I look forward to working on each goal I have set. At the end of the year I want to look back-- maybe around Christmas, and think to myself that I did try to do as our Prophet said. I tried a little harder to be a little better and FINALLY I succeeded in my realistic goals.
Wish me luck ;)