My NEW New Year's Resolutions

I have rarely committed myself to New Year’s Resolutions in the past. If there was something new I wanted to try or a new routine I wanted to start, I would start my new thing that Monday, sort of a New Week’s Resolution. This year however, I found myself reflecting a lot about this past twelve months and all that happened; the birth of my second son Lucas, my first summer back at YMCA Camp Ingersoll, and all of the New Week’s Resolutions that were made. So I decided that I would make a small list of overall resolutions to help guide my New Week’s Resolutions throughout this year. There’s nothing ground breaking, all pretty much fall into the most popular resolutions people make, but I wanted to share them anyway.

1. Spend more quality time with my family – now that my family has grown in size, my wife and I find ourselves more and more taking some short cuts trying to get things done fast so that we can move one to the next thing. I realized when we may only have an hour to go sledding, it’s not about the number of time we go down the hill, but taking time to lay on our backs in the snow looking at the clouds and planes that go by; that’s what my son Michael enjoyed the most. I would like to look at more clouds with my family.

2. Learn, read, and reflect more – there are many ways to learn but the one I am choosing to focus on is reading. There are many ways to obtain books and information nowadays, sometimes it can be overwhelming when searching through a book store, in person or online. To help narrow my search I made a quick list of topics that interest me, which also helped me reflect on what is important.

3. Participate in some sort of organized race – my health resolution. Last year I intended to participate in the Northeast Warrior Dash, a 5K adventure race held in upstate New York. I waited too long to register, and it sold out! So like any other health seeker, I simply stopped training. It was a poor excuse, but now I intend to register early, and if I am unable to attend that one particular event, I will find another.

If you have not made your resolutions yet, it’s not too late. There are many articles, including Patrick’s blog entry last week, that provide tips to creating goals that you can keep and make a difference. Also remember, there are also 52 opportunities to start New Week’s Resolutions this year.

I hope you and your family have a great healthy, safe and fun New Year!