Happy New Year!

Can I be brutally honest? I hate New Year’s resolutions. There, I said it. I really despise them. In theory resolutions are great – they’re built around self-improvement and, in ideal cases, toward the betterment of humanity. However, the problem with traditional New Year’s resolutions is that they’re fleeting. We set them at the start of a new calendar year and by February have all but abandoned our new gym membership, healthy diet and organizational systems. I am just as guilty of being a “bandwagon resolution-maker” as the rest.

If my experience going out to lunch in the first fifteen days of January was any indication, New Year’s resolutions are a passing fad. Each day at noon, I walk past two restaurants competing for business with very different cuisines. One specializes in high-end made-to-order salads and the other specializes in burgers, fries and milkshakes. During most of December the line at the burger joint was out the door and down the block, while the salad locale had a much shorter line. However, based on the flip-flop of the line lengths over these last few weeks, it has become abundantly clear that most people on my block have chosen to “eat well, lose weight” as a resolution.

So, here we are, halfway through January, and I’ve decided to skip the resolutions that make most people feel hangry (that’s angry from hunger, just in case you’re not up on the lingo). Instead, I am taking a new pass at resolutions and am attempting to find places where less really is more:

I resolve to worry less about the number on the scale and instead focus on how I feel (which, of course, is currently SUPER pregnant, but that’s only for a few more weeks).

I resolve to check Facebook less (and my phone, while we’re at it) and look up more.

I resolve to spend less time watching my kids play and more time playing with them.

I resolve to worry less about the future, the bills, and the unfolded laundry and spend more time living in the moment.

Are these different from traditional resolutions? No. But they also give me the space to find the right balance in life. Rather than always striving for the “more” in a given situation, I can try my hand at a more holistic approach. Ultimately I want to seek out the opportunities where less is more and seize them with arms wide open. I want to spend less time worrying about what isn’t happening and instead enjoy the moment in front of me. Wouldn’t that make for a great year?

And, if those resolutions don’t feel fitting anymore, I’m not going to wait until December 31 to make new ones. Life is about inventing and reinventing yourself, rolling with the punches and adapting as needed. So why do we wait all year just to reset our goals? Perhaps my biggest resolution for this year is not to have New Year’s resolutions, but instead to have resolutions monthly, weekly, daily if necessary. Because if I can help make today better than yesterday then who knows what tomorrow may hold!