Wishing you a Happy and Healthy New Year!

Wow, where has the year gone?!?

It does not seem like New Year's Eve tonight... and accordingly, I don't feel like doing much. New Year's Eve has never been a favorite holiday of mine, but I always feel like I should give it one more chance to change my mind.

I considered a few different activities for this year's celebration, one including dancing at Goodfoot; another being going to see the movie 'Nine,' which I feel would be festive and fancy, replacing my lack of exciting plans. However, spending it with friends is a much better option so that is the winner!

New Year's Eve, besides the requisite drinking, is also a time to reflect on the past year and set new goals for the upcoming one. Usually these resolutions are promises to lose x-amount-of pounds, or vowing never to eat sugar. I dont like those types of resolutions because I dont believe setting such extreme goals will provide the desired results. Instead, I believe in a life-style change resolution such as eat 2 servings of vegetables per day or exercise 3 times per week. But this year, I think for the first time, or at least in a very long time, my long term goals will not revolve around those things.....

Here they are:

• floss daily
• get up with my alarm (no more snoozing!)
• take a photo everyday -- thank you Lisa, and the friend that inspired her

other goals I have that I cannot put into realistic resolution form include:

• doing the crossword (as often as I can, ideally everyday)
• blog at least every other day - so far so good
• say YES to everything (in 'Yes Man' form)
• adding yoga back in to my work out schedule (once a week?)

What are YOUR New Year's Resolutions??

We also have a tradition in our family of making a prediction of what you will accomplish in the year ahead.

This year (I guess these are all more hopes than actual predictions):

• I hope to get a "real" job - or at least one that gets me closer to my desired field.
• So far January and February are both booked with trips so hopefully I can keep that up with a trip/month, even if its just around Oregon.
• also for next New Year's I am going to go all out: big birthday celebration (be it a bash, or a trip), no skimping for Halloween, and either a New Year's party, or celebrate it in a big city (New York?)
• oh, one more prediction (/goal): run a marathon in the fall.
• ....and move out. :)

I just heard about this concept of No Complaining and I think it's fantastic.

I think we all spend way too much time and energy complaining and not enough time enjoying all the good things that even unfortunate events provide.

On the flip side, today I read in the New York Times an article stating the exact opposite: that being positive wont change the level of your happiness; in fact it will worsen it! The claim is that people are trying too hard to change their thinking and focusing on it to the extreme that, I believe, they believe they are failing, which causes/brings them back to their unhappiness.

Which I believe, to an extent, is true; you cant change your inherent nature, especially not overnight. But just because you have one negative thought does not mean you have failed.

Anyway, I did not intend to go off on such a tangent....

I am very fortunate to have a naturally very positive outlook on life, but we are all human and we all have our days where things just are not going 'right,' and days when we're all a little cranky. Although, even on my cranky days, I don't (at least for the most part) complain too much, I am also going to abide by the No Complaining rule... and I've found that often times it rubs off onto others!

So if you ever feel like things are not going your way, think about all the things that ARE and remember that these moments, when you feel like you've been kicked when you're down and don't feel like you'll ever be able to get back up, will pass, and good will come to you as well.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

I hope it brings health, happiness, excitement and new adventures!