“Humph!” Someone rammed into my back at the grocery store. The cereal box tower, the someone, and I crumpled to the floor.
“So sorry! It was an accident really!” The someone helped me to my feet.
I wasn’t surprised to see my friend Stacey. Stacey can put clumsy to shame standing on one foot, which was probably how she bumped into me in the first place.
“Besides ruining my appetite for cereal, you didn’t hurt a thing,” I assured her.
We talked small talk and then she asked January’s most popular question. “What’s your new year’s resolution?”
I’m sure on the outside, my eyes glazed over. On the inside, I was busy rummaging through a dusty ol’ box labeled New Year in the attic of my brain. Amidst party favors, sparklers, and parade floats, I found not one resolution.
“Where’d you go, Sophy?” asked Stacey. “Actually, I don’t want to know.”
I resurfaced to the world of reality. “I don’t have any New Year’s Resolutions.”
Now we had one of those suddenly quiet moments where two people stare at each other, I with my completely normal face, and my friend with a completely baffled face.
The one with the baffled face broke the silence. “Everyone has them, its tradition! This year I have resolved to give up cooking.”
“That will definitely cut down on humanity’s gag rate.”
“And last year I quit exercising.”
“I remember exercising was quite the trendy resolution.”
“I was in rebellion.”
“Still are.”
“But I’ve gotten better.” She grinned. “What are you going to do?”
“I don’t know, Stace, I’m having a hard enough time surviving life. I don’t feel like adding a silly New Year resolution.”
Stacey waved her hand dismissively, knocking over a cardboard case of batteries. “Its fun. Besides, no one keeps them.”
I caught the cardboard case and set it up again. “Then what’s the point?”
“Its tradition, like the knitted socks my grandma makes for me every Christmas and the cranberry sauce that no one eats at thanksgiving. Traditions aren’t supposed to be purposeful.”
“It would be grand if every year people made a resolution to do something better in their lives and kept it.”
Stacey sighed. “You mean, like keep my promise? For 365 days?”
“It only takes around 21 days for something to become a habit. If you don’t cook for three weeks, it will be such a habit you’ll have to cook for three more weeks to break it again.
Stacey squinted her eyes and looked at me sideways. “Say I crave chocolate tomorrow night and no one else is in the house and there’s no premade brownies? What do I do then?”
“Bump into me again tomorrow and I’ll have some tips for you.”
“It’s a deal. But what about your resolution?”
“My resolution is to hold you to yours!”
The next day, I gained another bruise as clumsy Stacey took my invitation literally. Here are the tips I gave Stacey.
Resolution Tips
- Be realistic. Don’t set yourself up to fail.
- Write them down. Seeing it on paper reaffirms the resolution.
- Plan. A step-by-step strategy eases that scary feeling people get when thinking about the future.
- Talk about it. The more people know about your resolution, the more motivation you have.
- Beware the despair! Don’t give up. Even if you break your resolution, keep at it. It takes practice to accomplish anything.
Good luck all you New Year resoluters!
Posted on January 12, 2010
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