Saturday, January 2, 2010

A New Year

I can appreciate the whole "New Year's Resolution" idea. I'm all for goals but what I have found out about myself is that goal's are really worthless unless there is some form of commitment behind them. And for me to be committed to a change, means that something meaningful has to happen for me to want to change.

For instance, over the past 5 years I have changed my eating and exercise habits all after a friend was diagnosed with cancer (she's doing well, thank you for asking). It wasn't a huge, overnight change. It was very small changes (the Japanese refer to this as Kaizen or baby steps) implemented over time. First I totally cut out soda from my diet (they are fattening and totally devoid of any nutritional value but you can bet that there will be a 2 liter of ice cold Pepsi at my last meal) and I started walking. About 3 months later I added ankle and hand weights. Another couple of months later I added interval weight training. I went quite a long time without doing anything new. Then I had a friend challenge me to a boot camp. For six weeks I got up at 5 am (no easy feat for a die-hard night owl) in the Texas summer heat (trust me, it's not that much cooler at 5 am) and worked out. I was amazed at the energy and strength I gained and didn't want to lose that so I started running. That was 2 years ago. So change happens, goals get met, when you are committed to them and when you don't overwhelm yourself.

This year I am not making any resolutions, per se, instead I choose to call it a "rededication". For me, 2010 is going to be The Year of my Art. I have always enjoyed art and design but this year I am rededicating myself to my creativity. I have already signed up for one art class and I have a wonderful, scary but exciting big project that I am launching in 2010 that is dedicated to my love of creating fashion (knitting, crochet, sewing). The website is being worked on as I write this. This is going to be the year that I take my creativity seriously and finally overthrow those demons (in my head as well as well-meaning people) that told me that being "crafty" was a good hobby but not suitable as a career.



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