Don't Give Up

I read recently that nearly 50% of people give up on their New Year's Resolutions by January 10th. At first I thought this statement was a bit extreme, but when I gave it a bit more thought, I realized that the statement is likely - and somewhat depressingly - completely accurate.

I use the gym as my primary reference point. Because I've consistently belonged to a gym since I started college (with the exception of our first year in Ann Arbor, when our apartment complex had a fitness room, and the few days in between leaving one gym and finding another each time we move to a new city), I'm pretty familiar with gym membership cycles. As I'm sure you can imagine, gyms are insanely busy and crowded during the first two weeks of the year, when personal improvement and fitness resolutions motivate new members to pound out a couple of miles on the treadmill or lift a weight or two. But by the middle of January, many of the new faces have disappeared. And by the middle of February...well, by then, the gym is pretty much back to normal.

I'm not saying this circumstance is a good one - I'd love it if everyone who joined the gym stuck around for years to come. And perhaps the way to make it happen is to approach New Year's Resolutions - of all kinds - differently. To set smaller goals. To set more realistic goals. To make life simpler instead of more complicated. To acknowledge that falling off the band wagon by January 10th doesn't mean you can't jump back on on January 11th.

I guess what I'm trying to say today is that I hope you don't give up. I hope 2013 is the year you start to feel good about yourself. Or feel better about yourself. Or feel great about yourself. I hope 2013 is the year you discover what makes you happy and make progress toward achieving your goals. I hope 2013 is the year that brings you closer - if even just by one small step - toward who you want to be.

I'm pleased to report that while I haven't made much progress on my larger, project-like resolutions (I haven't yet knitted any scarves, nor have I developed my comprehensive, year-long writing plan), I have already scheduled a date with Tom, read two books, watched one movie from start to finish while simultaneously doing NOTHING else, and enjoyed exactly the same amount of beer as I did last year during the same time period.

On the flip side, I haven't been doing a very good job of eating fewer carbohydrates and drinking more water. There's always room for improvement...