>I’m a big fan of New Year’s resolutions. Always have been, really. Of course the nature of my resolutions has changed. When I was ten, I wrote down “practice more for dance class” in my resolution notebook; when I was 21, this changed to “stop binge drinking and going on dates with total losers.” The best year for resolutions was the start of 2006 when I resolved to a) stop just sticking with a bad situation because to change it would be temporarily uncomfortable and b) stop assuming that people sucked without first getting to know them. These resolutions gave me the courage to end the worst relationship idea since pickles and ice cream as well as to strike up some of the best friendships (and one marriage) I’ve ever had. A year of resounding success amidst some 20 years of relatively unsuccessful resolution endeavors. Sigh.

The problem, I’ve found, with making New Year’s resolutions is that the results are not immediate enough. Or maybe they could be but the resolution itself is too broad (“meet interesting people” or “try something new” or “read more”). So even if you work on the resolution at different points throughout the year, you never really feel like you’ve accomplished something that you could, say, tick off a totally fictitious (…) resolution list with a satisfying ‘CHECK!’.

Well this year is going to be different. This year, my primary resolution is to make daily resolutions. For example, January 1st’s resolution was to start something new so I set up a geocaching membership and am taking Ewan out for his first treasure hunt on Wednesday. January 2nd’s was to start cutting back on my two tin per day Club Soda habit so today I opted for water or lemongrass tea. Tomorrow’s resolution is to ‘get in touch with family’ so I’m finishing up my thank you notes for xmas and calling an aunt I’ve been meaning to call for a couple of months. In the end I’ll have 365 different resolutions but I’ll also have a daily sense of accomplishment with these small tasks. Satisfying, no? We’ll see.

Off to bed now. Perhaps at some point this year I should resolve to start sleeping when Ewan is in bed…hmm.