The Capital Athletic Club Blog I said I wouldn't!

I said I wasn't going to make a New Year's Resolution and I said I wasn't going to write about them in my blog but, I did and I am. I think the whole "resolution" thing sets us up right away for failure because often, we put too many expectations on ourselves and too much pressure to be perfectly successful. My resolution is to be in bed with the lights out at 10:30 p.m. This is not the first time I have made this resolultion, it has been a Start of the School Year Resolution, Daylight Savings Time Resolution, The End of Daylight Savings Time Resolution . . . Never give up is one of my mantras. I have always been a hard-core late night person, I get my second wind at 10:00 p.m. and 2:00 a.m. is my favorite time of day. Since I must arise each morning at 6:30 a.m. to go to work/get 2nd grader ready for school person and I absolutely must have eight hours of sleep or I am mean and surly (just ask my husband) my late nights don't work anymore. Because I like to stay up late I know that hitting that 10:30 p.m. mark over the long-term is going to be tough. Change is hard. New behaviors are great and but those pesky old habits are hanging out in your brain just waiting for you to slip up so they can jump back in and ruin your day. I know I am going to mess up my resolution pretty quickly so I gave myself permission to start over immediately after a slip-up. I have also accepted the fact that this process is going to be uncomfortable and, even if I don't like it, eventually I will be glad I did it. I have learned over the years how to be comfortable with discomfort and for me, it is one of the biggest things that has allowed me to adopt new behaviors and not get wigged out if things don't work out exactly along the timeline I had planned. Good luck to all of you who made resolutions and have a great 2013. Jeanette