A New Year! I New Me?...or Not.

Happy 2012 everyone! I hope you had a wonderful Christmas with your families and that the New Year is one filled with many blessings and promise!

Over the last few days I've been thinking about the New Year. Most people are making resolutions and deciding just what they are going to do this coming year. There's nothing wrong with that. Everyone needs goals. Goals are a great thing. They keep us motivated. For me, however...making resolutions doesn't work very well.

I've made resolutions many times over the years and while I make them with the best of intentions, for the most part, I forget about them by February. Unfortunate, but true. I suppose I can take solace in the fact that I'm not the only one. Ha ha!

So, this year, I'm going to do something different. NO resolutions for me. HOWEVER, I am going to work on bettering myself. I am going to try and lose weight this year (like last year and every year), but this year, I am determined not to beat myself up about any challenges that might get tossed into my path. Just do my best and see what happens. I actually started this last year about September or so. I started watching what I eat and trying not to go overboard. The result: I've lost about 12 pounds. It's not a huge amount and it's not near my goal (Goal is to lose 150 pounds total), but it's a start and I'm happy with it. Slow and steady wins the race as they say...so I've decided this year just to keep in the race. Not to quit and not to let myself get upset when I mess up. Just to slowly keep in the race. No promising that I'll hit my goal my a certain time...just that I'll keep striving for it. Someday, maybe I'll hit it.

Here's the thing though, whether I lose all the weight I want to or whether I stay the way I am for the rest of my life...I'm the same person. We often link "who we are" to "what we look like." I've decided that is just rubbish. We might feel differently about ourselves if we lose a bunch of weight, get a new outfit or accomplish a big goal...but in reality, we are the same person that we were before. So, I've decided to be happy with who I am, because I might be able to change what I look like, but I can't change the person God made me. And I like her. She's a pretty neat person. She's got flaws and issues, but God also gave her talents and compassion, and good friends. Yep, I like the person God made me. And this year...no matter what happens to my outsides...I'm going to remember that! :-)