This is My Year To...

It is another new year (five days old, but still fresh), and of course with it comes the usual New Year Resolutions or is it maybe Disillusions?  Come on, be honest, how many of you write the same resolutions in your brand new diary every year?  This year - lose weight, eat healthier, join the gym, study, pay off debts, etc.  We start off with such enthusiasm, but scarcely a month later, the new diet died an early death and I have put off my gym membership for when I have paid off my debts, and that will happen once I had my last shopping spree on my credit card!  Yeah, right!  I am sad to break it to you, but we are only fooling ourselves.  So what is a person to do?  I mean, it feels so good to have New Year resolutions, it invigorates us, fills us with excitement for the coming year and gives us a purpose.  But on the flip side: it feels terrible when we fail once again!  

I am by no means an expert, but I have a suspicion why we so often fail at carrying through with our resolutions. It is a combination of two things.  Firstly, we have too many things we want to change or start at once.  We lack focus and we are overwhelmed by the magnitude of it all.  We have to narrow it down to one or two things, at the very most, three things.  When we focus our energy on changing or starting one particular thing we tend to be much more successful at it.  Secondly, we do not want it badly enough.  Often we want to do something to please somebody else or to impress somebody.  We want to do it because everyone else is doing it or we think it is the right thing or the "in" thing to do.  We want to do it for all the wrong reasons.  The only time I will be successful is when I want to do it for myself and I want to REALLY do it.  New Year's resolutions is a very personal issue, and I need to focus all my attention on it.

Those who have been following my blog might remember this post from the 5th of May 2014:

"I am not, I repeat, NOT an athlete.  Although I love walking, and can even walk at quite a pace, I am not athletic at all.  We are not an athletic family.  We love art.  We are regulars on the culture scene.  My idea of running is that the engine is here to stay!  Yet I have a dream, one that I have kept quite well hidden, well that is until now.  Deep down, in the very darkest recesses of my heart there is this desire to run at least a 5 k. There I have said it, now I want to hide!  

So, that is how I find myself at this point in my life where I have bought the shoes and actually donned them.  Now it is time to set out on the journey.  Time for the unwilling athlete to step up!"

Yes, to run the 5k was my resolution for 2014 (as well as for the year before, and the year before and the year before that!  You get the picture?)

So, how did it go with this resolution?  Well, I did it.  Not only did I do it, I went on to the 1ok and the 15k!  So, what made the difference?  How did I get to stick to my goal last year when all the previous years it stayed just a thought in my diary?  My answer?  A singleness of thought.  It was my ONLY goal and this time I was selfish, I wanted to do it for ME. Not because it was the "in" thing to do, not because somebody else was doing it, but for me.  That was how I started, but then I got a bonus.  My daughter told me about her desire, and that was to take part in a major event, running a half marathon, but she did not want to do it alone.  Of course, like the mother I am, I volunteered to be her running buddy.  Thus 5k has become 10k and 15 k and I am steadily working my way up to 21k!!! 

Doing this had the added bonus that one of my other resolutions of previous years happened without me even trying.  I have lost the 5kg's (10lb) that I have been threatening to lose for the past 5 years!

Do you have any new year resolutions?  Then I suggest that you take a long hard look at them and pick just one of them, that one that you really really want to do the most.  That one that speaks to your very essence.  The one, that if you were to achieve it, would make you the happiest.  Pick that one and then focus all your attention on it, live it, breathe it and go for it with all your might.  Banish all your excuses and reasons not to do it. NOW is the time to do it.  Don't put it off any longer.  You owe it to yourself.  I am not a fan of the winter, yet despite the bitter cold, I ventured out of the house and followed my program, hating it, yet loving it.  How great it was when Spring came and all the other athletes started their training and I was already past my base training!  I have had many people critisizing me ("At your age!  You are mad!  You are not an athlete!  You will never be able to do it!  I drove past you and felt so sorry when I saw you suffering so much!") , very few people gave me any words of encouragement, but for the first time it did not matter, because I am not doing it for any of them!!  Pay no attention to the nay-sayers, nor to that little saboteur in your head trying to discourage you.  

GO ON!  DO IT!!!!

You are welcome to share your goals for 2015 with me here on my blog.  I would love to hear from you and encourage you.

I wish you every success in 2015!!!