New Year's Resolutions that Work!

Most of us have had some experience making New Year's resolutions (NYRs) that don't come to fruition, if we implement them at all.  It can be discouraging, so we sometimes decide that NYRs just don't work.  But they CAN work!  The problem is that we create these big ambitious goals without planning how we're going to achieve them.

One key to successful change is to plan enough time to make your resolutions come true.  Most general goals (be more organized, lose some weight, get healthier) require changes in habits (put clothes away immediately after laundering, record what you eat in a food diary, exercise for at least 30 minutes a day, etc.).  We may even phrase our resolutions in terms of what we will do differently, but we often don't schedule time into our daily routine for these new habits.
 

Here are some strategies for finding enough time to make your resolutions work this year:

• Schedule time to work on each of your biggest resolutions every day.  Make an appointment with yourself (and with any support people you need to achieve your goal).  Write it down and block off a section in your planner to work on your goal.
• Identify your "Prime Time" - the time of day when you have the most energy and motivation - and use that time to work on your most important resolution.  After all, if it is your most important goal, doesn't it deserve your best effort?  For most people "Prime Time" is first or second thing in the morning, but experiment to find what time works best for you.
• Plan for set up and clean up time.  If you plan to exercise from 7:30 to 8 am each morning, remember that you have to get dressed first, go to the gym or wherever you work out, and then shower and re-dress for the day afterward.  Schedule that time in as well!
• Schedule regular time to review your progress and plan for any changes you need to make in your routine.  We can't plan everything perfectly in advance, so schedule in 15 minutes every Saturday morning, or 1/2 hour every Sunday night to review that week's successes (be sure to celebrate any progress you make!), and to make any adjustments you need to keep you moving forward.  Once a month (on the first to reconnect with your New Year's theme?), review your progress overall, and again make adjustments.

If you truly want success, do more than just wish for it.  Plan both the behaviors you will need to change and the time you will need to do them.  Good luck!

Recycling Corner:  The Re-Gifting Party

Re-Gifting (passing on a gift you don't love to someone else) has earned a bad reputation. Re-gifters may be considered cheap, unappreciative, and lazy (sorry, you re-gifters out there). 

But to me, re-gifting is a high-level form of recycling, where the "not-quite-right-for-me" item may be a perfect match for someone else I know! 

Re-gifting is often done in a secretive, anxious way, trying to make sure the original gifter doesn't find out, and hoping that the new "giftee" doesn't notice and make all the judgments above.  What if, instead, we make re-gifting a cause for celebration? Time for a party!

The post-holiday season is a fun time for a re-gifting party.  The weather is cold, the pretty decorations are down, and we're trying to figure out what to do with all the things we got for Christmas.  We love our friends and relatives, but they don't always get it right when they try to pick the perfect gifts for us.  Or we went to a party with a Yankee Swap or grab-bag event and "won" something we have no use for.  Or the boss gave everyone a laptop bag with the company logo; but we already have a laptop bag that works perfectly for us.   So we put the extra salad-spinner or crockpot we won't use, or set of potholders that don't match our kitchen colors, or special bag we don't need down in the basement, or into a cabinet, never to be used and taking up valuable space in our homes.

Instead, why not throw a party?  Invite your friends to bring over their new, unwanted gifts to trade or just give away!  It's amazing how much someone else may LOVE a gift that you would never use in a million years; and it can be a lot of fun trying to figure out together what some "specialty" items are even for!  Make it a game, use raffle tickets, but make sure that people only take home things that they really like or need.  In fact, plan a trip to a charity donation place for anything that isn't grabbed up enthusiastically by the end of the night.  For extra fun, you can even include re-gifted refreshments - cookies you received but are allergic to, specialty liquors you'd never drink alone, teabag collections that would otherwise last you forever since you're a coffee-drinker.

ABWA of Cape Cod (the American Business Woman's Association) does a re-gifting raffle every January at our monthly meeting, and it's one of our most popular events of the year!  I won't tell you what I contributed this year (in case the original gifter is listening in), but I will tell you that something I would NEVER use was such a cause for celebration for the person who won it, she took pictures of her using it an posted it on her Facebook page. 

Keep recycling things you can't use, but consider making a party of it once in a while.  You'll have a good excuse for some mid-winter fun, and you and your friends may end up with some new gifts you will actually use and enjoy.  Give it a try, and let me know how it goes!