The new year calendar date of January 1st.  It’s a date on a calendar that marks the start of the next year and helps us keep track of cyclic events.. Birthdays, Holidays, Special occasions and sometimes smoke alarm battery change out dates.

It marks the beginning of a new calendar year and comes only once every 12 months or 52 weeks or 365 days depending on your preference of time tracking.  We often use this date as a marker of starting something new or stopping something old or the time when we make adjustments to our way of living.  I don’t make new years resolutions because they are easy to make and are easier to forget after the first or second time I fail trying to live up to the new years resolution(s) I set out to accomplish.

I find that it’s more productive to make small adjustments over the course of the entire year and reflect from time to time along the way to see just how far I have come.  The end of the year is a time when I look back and consider the whole year and what has changed.  For me, making new year’s resolutions is a way to feel good about something that I’m going to change but I’d rather enjoy the holiday season and once the afterglow wears off, it’s then that i find myself thinking about what I want to change or accomplish if even for just a short while.

I find it better to set small quantifiable goals that have measurable results.  If possible, I like to determine points along the way that are good indicators that I am making progress towards the intended goal.  Saying I’m going to loose a bunch of weight this next year doesn’t really have any way to be measured,  A bunch of weight could be 10 pounds or it could be 100.  This is the first place that one needs to decide just how much measurable weight they intend to shed.  There needs to be points along the way to show if progress is being made towards to goal.  This is the way to reach a goal and it doesn’t matter if you set it now or 4 months from now.  It’s an adjustment that you make along life’s journey.

If you get the chance to think about this and decide you want to set a reasonably attainable goal, think of something that you know you really can do and map out what that looks like along the way as well as the end result.  Take measurements, adjust your course to get there and if you have a setback, don’t wait until a year has passed before trying again.  It’s about adjustments as much as it is about the goal to get there.