Should you, or shouldn’t you? Make resolutions, that is.
Lots of us make resolutions for the New Year, and many of us don’t attain our resolution goals, but if you make resolutions you are more likely to succeed, according to the Statistics Brain Research Institute.
* Percent of Americans who usually make New Year’s Resolutions: 41%
* Percent of Americans who infrequently make New Year’s Resolutions: 17%
* Percent of Americans who absolutely never make New Year’s Resolutions: 42%
* Percent of people who are successful in achieving their resolution: 9.2%
* Percent who have infrequent success: 48.4%
* Percent who never succeed and fail on their resolution each year: 42.4%
* People who explicitly make resolutions are 10 times more likely to attain their goals than people who don’t explicitly make resolutions
Most resolutions – from my own observation – have to do with health and fitness. Lose weight. Exercise more. Eat more healthy food. Eat less junk food. Drink less alcohol. Drink more water. Quit smoking.
I know what I need to do, but will I do it? It’s said that writing it all down, and making an action plan, will increase the likelihood of success in the New Year.
May the next year find your waistline slimmer, your wallet fatter, your cholesterol lower, and your tolerance level higher. And ….
May all your troubles last as long as your New Year’s Resolutions!
Stella's Place 
My resolution for 2017 was to pay off bills and get out of debt. Well, I think I did pretty good. On December 1, 2017, the only debt we had was our mortgage. All credit cards paid off, and an “Excellent” rating. Then Christmas happened, UH OH…
Never to worry, I was so frugal, we now owe so little, that it will be paid off next month.
My new resolution for 2018…Save some money (and maybe a wee vacation)!
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I have a small home equity loan to pay off, and then all I have is a small mortgage. Yeah for me too!
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YAAAH! 🙂
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YAAAH! 🙂
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I don’t make “New Year’s resolutions” for a lot of reasons. Some of them valid, and some of them probably reflect the cynicism based on self-knowledge, as in, “Aw, come on, Sharon – – you know better than that….” [Little Self rolling on the floor in laughter]….also expressed as, “If you really intended to do that, you would have done it already.”
If I actually want to do something I will do it no matter the time of the year. Making a statement because it’s January 1 is not significant for me. My own words don’t make my actions more or less likely. If I actually intend to do something, it will be done whether or not I have talked about it.
Forgive me, if necessary, for this flat-footed and probably too-serious comment. I’ll go away now.
My fun for today so far is grating a whole bunch of orange peel and setting the dehydrator up to dry five more trays of orange zest. It is SO nice to have a half pint or more of orange zest on hand in the fridge to grab at any time to use in this recipe or that. And so much less expensive than buying it. I’m also finding that the julienne dried apples are the best. Oh, goodness – – drop a couple tablespoons in my oatmeal or add them to chicken salad. So handy and good. Bottom line is actually that I’m eating more fruit because of adding it in, instead of having to work with individual fruit every time.
My next learning with the dehydrator is celery. Not useful for if you want the crunch of fresh celery but for anything that just calls for celery flavor (soups, etc.) I think I will find it very handy. Also chicken salad again there – for sandwiches. How often I have had to run to the store JUST for celery when I’m making soup or something…..so I think that will be useful.
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“If you really intended to do that, you would have done it already.”
My Mother in law and I were talking just recently. She does a lot of bargaining with God (on and off if you will) anyhow it used to be she wanted to live long enough to see all her granddaughters graduate high school, then she bumped it college, then recently she asked for ten more years.
My mother in law’s personality is very similar to Gracie from George and Gracie. She is a happy soul.
So in the middle of the night she woke up in a cold sweat and said “What am I doing? If I get 10 more years I’ll wait 9 years to get my bathroom fixed and this fixed and that fixed and this done and that done” 😊
So she then made a deal with God that she would start doing things that she was supposed to do so she would like to be here long enough to get everything done. And she really did start doing things that she has procrastinated about for decades.
She has so much to do, I think she will live forever.
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hahaha! 🙂
Well, if having so much much to do as it relates to home repairs counts – then I’ll live forever too!
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I think she has about 50 quilts that are in varying states of finish from about 1/4 of the way done to 3/4th’s done.
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She has an ulterior motive with all those quilts (wink, wink) 🙂
But seriously my sister has done some quilts. I think she is the exception in that she starts and finishes one at a time – none of this 50 1/2 done things! She is also the type that will clean (meaning trash) anything away that is larger than a postage stamp and sits there for more than a week. When our mother died she tossed my mother’s clothes before I could get there, including some I had just bought her that she had not even worn, and other clothes that were mine I loaned her to wear that were expensive (we wore the same size). She knew, and threw them out anyway.
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I love my mother in law and she is funny. We still have hours long chats on the phone.
Once when my father in law was at work and she was a young mom she got a phone call from her mother in law that they ere coming for a visit and would be there in about 3 hours. The house was a mess, the children were little, she had no plans for dinner and her husband and his mom had a strained relationship at best so my mother in law always tried to put the best scenario forward whenever she saw her in laws.
About an hour after getting the call from her MIL her husband arrived home, the house was still a mess, dinner still wasn’t started and the kids were playing away.
My MIL was knitting daisies 😜. My FIL said hello to her and the children and my MIL told him that his parents would be there in a couple of hours.
My FIL said, “Well what are you doing?” She calmly said “Knitting daisies.” He asked her why. She said everything else seemed too overwhelming 🙂 .
So if something is overwhelming we have a joke “I think I’ll go knit some daisies.” 🌼
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“I think I’ll go knit some daisies.” I like that! 😉 It even sounds happy, and the visual of creating lovely flowers is so positive!
I’ve always liked daisies – still do.
This fall I had a family reunion. I knew everything would not be fixed and painted etc., so I put a bright yellow sign on the door saying the house is a work in progress & come on in! I have a couple of VERY wealthy relatives & was a little concerned, but then that passed just as quickly as the thought came. They even made a joke about the sign. They did not care. I’m way past caring about people that are superficial!
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Don’t you go away! 😉
I’m with you on resolutions. Stopped doing them quite a few decades ago.
So what brand of dehydrator do you have, and do you like it?
Also, I went to amazon to check about your Mailboxes book, then I remembered just talking with someone who sells there. He said they take 20% from him! I wanted to stop using amazon as much as possible anyways. There were a couple of other places that said they had NEW copies of your hardcover. Do you have a preference of sellers for us to buy from?
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The royalty I get from the book is the same regardless of the seller. Thank you for checking! I would say buy from the source of your choice.
Dehydrator: it’s a Rosewill, purchased based on a recommendation since I knew nothing about them. I like it very much. Reading the user comments about them online leducated me somewhat. I’m just a beginner with that.
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Thanks! 🙂
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Sharon, that was fantastic……….
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Oh! That’s treadmill? I thought it was a drying rack & storage area;-)
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The History of New Year’s Resolutions
http://www.history.com/news/the-history-of-new-years-resolutions
My sincere resolution is to love more…humans in general, family and friends in particular, and the animals and all creation with which God has blessed us…and especially to give more thanks and love to our wonderful Lord…
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I make resolutions every year. Almost never have 100% success, but every year I finish better than the year before. This is exceedingly hard for me, but I’m trying to finish with the attitude that I won’t let not being perfect steal the motivation and joy in being good.
I have a strong tendency not to want to do things that I think I can’t be perfect at. While knowing that the things I can’t be perfect at are the ones I need to tackle.
The last few years I’ve gotten much better. I only let myself have two or three resolutions, and only one can be really difficult, two are mostly just things I need more consistency or a regular schedule in. Also, I do make a detailed plan using SMART goals, and I commit to some motivational daily activities that support my goals.
I am much better throughout the year if I set plans and goals in effect in January. It really works for me motivationally. I like the thought of setting out on a journey toward something I really want at the beginning of the year, and reviewing progress periodically.
January might be arbitrary to most people, but maybe because my birthday is in January I like to start things then.
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