Last week we posted about New Year's resolutions - how to keep them measurable, specific, and achievable. Hopefully some of you gained useful tips from that posting. Yet here we are, January 19, and over a third of people who make New Year's resolutions won't even keep them through the end of this month. Perhaps that extra piece of fruit every morning has already deteriorated into an extra cup of coffee instead.
It is my (Courtney) custom to periodically evaluate my life and make sure I am living it the way I want to. Instead of waiting for an arbitrary date or holiday, I think if there are changes to be made in my life, I want to make them now rather than wait. I was reminded of the importance of this practice this past week when a friend's partner was diagnosed with a life-threatening disease, totally out of the blue. Their comment was, "You never think it's going to happen to you." All of the sudden, in a single moment, everything seems different when all that we might have taken for granted is threatened. But why? I say, let's go ahead and have the kind of life we want now, today, instead of waiting for tragedy or holidays to make changes.
It is easy to fall into the trap of approaching life from a place of "shoulds" and "ought tos." I want to challenge you to do it differently. Do what makes you happy. Make values-oriented decisions. Be present for your life, and value the people you love and make sure they know it. When you go to bed at night, don't have any regrets about the way you spent your time that day. Measure yourself by who you are instead of what you do.
Who needs resolutions when we choose to embody our lives with our full selves: our values, our dreams, our energies, our love, and our connection to the larger world. I love the Thoreau quote we have hanging in our office: "Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you've imagined. As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler."
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