I came from a world where New Year's Resolutions weren't really kept after the first couple weeks of the year anyway, so what he said to me made perfect sense to me.... either make the change or don't.... doo-doo or get off the kamode, as it were -
Anywho ... as that particular NYE approached, I did what many do - mutter at myself under my breath, "if I can just get to 2008, things will be okay. 2008 will be my year!!" Weeeell, those of you who know me in real life know that 2008 started off with a bang!
So I did what everyone else does - I waited until 2009 was on the horizon and decided, "2009 will be my year!!!" ..... 2009 was good and had it's ups and downs ...... as 2010 approached, I thought to myself - "AAAaaaah, a NEW decade! THAT'S what I need - 2010 - THIS is going to be the year!! All of those others were just false alarms, but 2010 .... THIS is the one!!" 2010 has been good and as with each year it's had it's ups and downs.
I sit here now in the wee hours of the morning on NYE - listening to Zig Ziglar and Brian Tracy and all of the other incredible speakers I learned about years ago at The Radio Ranch - I've perused the Facebook news feed and I see SO many people who have declared that 2011 will be their year.
I feel the same this year, however something has occurred to me that I don't think I realized going into other years and that's the fact that we must take it in "Baby Steps".
My folks and other various friends have been nagging at me to quit smoking for years. I started smoking when I was about 20ish I think. Depending on what's going on in life and how stressful it's been at any given time I've smoked between a half pack a day and 2.75 packs a day.
Obviously it's unhealthy.
Nothing made me chuckle on the inside more at my former j-o-b than to be standing at the end of the building having a ciggie as some codger hopped out of a pick-up truck and berated me for smoking ... ... ... as he hiked up his pants that wouldn't quite stay up due to the fact that he looked like he was about 14 and a half minutes from delivering a medicine ball.
I would always chuckle and thank them for their concern. Sometimes they would stop and tell me a story about how they quit or why they quit... sometimes they'd just walk on grumbling.
Anywho, I'm not going to say I'm going to stop smoking this year. I know it's bad for me and I know it's very expensive - and to be perfectly frank, right now the part that concerns me the most is the finance end of the deal.
I HAVE howevah begun a different system with my ciggies in the last 24 hours. I've made it a point to keep a pack of Nicorette in my ciggie case. Normally, my Nicorette and my ciggies are not near one another. If I know I'm going to be somewhere where I can't smoke freely I'll usually take a couple of pieces of Nic' out of the cabinet and stick it in my bag.
I felt that the new way of doing it would cause me to think each time I reached for a ciggie and hopefully cause me to choose Nic' every so often instead of a ciggie. So far, that's been the case.
I'll update you at some point - and as I said, I'm not attempting to quit - so please don't ask me if I've "quit yet". That will just p*ss me off and make me smoke an extra one =)
I do want to encourage each and every one of you ... not to make some ridiculous pie in the sky promise to yourself that you're going to work out for 2 a hours a day ... or go on an insanely restrictive diet ... or "fix your spouse" (for the love of Peter, Paul and Mary - that's a 'whole 'nuther blog...) - but promise yourself that you're going to make one small change that you can implement every day without having to reroute your entire life.
That makes me think of a book I picked up once -
I got it .... and I skimmed it .... and I started the first few chapters .... but I got sidetracked and never finished.
It IS a great book and it IS in a very chewable format - I'm gonna look for it today ;)
Have a grand and groovy day!
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