New Years Resolutions

January was named after the Roman god Janus who you may or may not have heard of. He had a face on the front and back of his head and he was the god of beginnings and endings. Which I know the true God of beginnings and endings (or shall I say Alpha and Omega) but that's another topic for another post.

Anyhow, as I think about the image of a man who looks forward as he looks backward, it is so very appropriate for January. We have the tradition of making "New Years Resolutions" in which we look back at the year that has past and select a few things we would have liked to change. Be they our eating, spending, management of time, sinning, or whatever and we try to make an effort to change those things or do better at them.

Some people have the same resolutions every year. Which means they didn't really succeed in really changing at all. However, some have given up on this tradition entirely because they acknowledge that it is futile to set goals that they have in the past failed in.

So, who is right and who is wrong? Should we set out to change our selves for the better year after year and fail every time? Or should we just stop trying all together?

Well, I think both are wrong and yet both have a grain of rightness in them. With the resolution(er) who tries and fails he/she is at least acknowledging areas of his/her life that need to be addressed. And with the non-resolution(er) he/she is being honest about the fact that they have failed in the past.

So the real question should be, "how do we stick to our resolutions?" And my answer is, yes make a resolution if you want to. But don't necessarily do it in January. Do it in August, or May or whenever. But don't do it because it is a tradition or because you feel you should. The ones that are kept are the ones that we are really passionate about keeping.

I resolved to lose weight back in August of 2006 after seeing the Super Size Me movie. I cut out fast food and soft drinks immediately and started to eat more whole grains and smaller portions. It was tough, and a couple of times I have had a fast food burger, but I lost a good amount of weight in the first year and then started to plateau. So I had to dig in and try harder, make different sacrifices.

And that is what I think is the real key to succeeding or failing in any type of resolution. You must be willing to make sacrifices and stick to those sacrifices. If you want to stop spending so much money then you have to sacrifice some of the things you buy, if you want to lose weight you have to be willing to give up the lifestyle of eating you have. And it is never easy. No matter what kind of change needs to take place it always hurts somewhere.