Motivational Mondays (Dec. 28)

Guess what Friday is?

Yeah, a new year. A new decade actually. Jan. 1, 2010. Wow. Can't believe it's going to be 2010 already.

With a new year comes the dreaded resolutions. It's like mandatory to make them, isn't it? Well, not really, but I do go back and forth between the significance of them. They really can be important and memorable but at the same time they can be meaningless and forgotten quickly.

Like most things, they are what you make of them. So, if you want to make good use of your resolutions, I'd suggest making resolutions that are A) realistic and B) specific.

A poor resolution then would be something like "I want to lose weight" (not specific) or "I want to run 2,500 miles" (not realistic). "I want to run more often" is something that is realistic but not specific. By "more often" does that mean twice a day? Twice a week? What is "often?"

And also, it's probably not the best idea to make too many resolutions as they could get lost in the shuffle. (Resolution number 225, section 5, line 7 states that I need to do make dinner five times a week, and I shall meet it).

Keep it simple, specific and realistic. If you're going to make resolutions, the last thing you want to do is to set yourself up for failure. One of the resolutions I've been kicking around is to run more days than I don't. Or you could say that it's to run at least four times a week. But I don't want to set myself up for failure with that because I go through some busy stretches of time during the year where running two or three times a week is an accomplishment.

So when we're all ready to make resolutions and put them down for everyone to see, keeping a couple of things in mind will only help start the new year off on the right foot.