January 1. There’s something about the start of the New Year that causes me to feel like it is a fresh start, a reason to make changes, a type of “do-over”. I know that every day is new beginning, with its promise of opportunities to do better than the day before, but, for whatever reason, every January 1st seems like a mile marker on my journey through life. This year is no different. As I look back over the past year, I not only reflect on the things that have been not been accomplished but I also remember the things that have been successful. Like so many others, I like to set goals for myself for the coming year, and this year I am doing the same. But this year I have decided to set smaller goals each month so that I might better attain them and maintain them through the year and hopefully have a better success rate. Sadly, I am one of those folks who has every intention of losing those 10 plus lbs, becoming a more organized person, spending more time with family, and using my time more wisely only to be thrown off course by birthday cake, unexpected occurrences, and plain lack of willpower after starting off strongly. This year, instead of making a list of goals for the year, I plan to take baby steps and attack one small goal at a time, adding another as one has become a part of my everyday life and I feel comfortable that it is firmly established. There is a myth that it takes 21 days to make or break a habit, but I have found in my life that this is not true by any stretch of the imagination. Sometimes it only takes 1 or 2 days to break a good habit (like daily exercise or no food after 8:00 p.m.) and it seems to take forever to break a bad one (like piling up receipts and not filing in the office for a month or more). So I have no list of New Year’s resolutions except that I resolve to try to do my best to make changes daily.

Motivation is what gets you started.  Habit is what keeps you going.  -Jim Ryun