Right now everyone is buzzing about their New Years resolutions. Eat better. Live in the moment. Shout less. Have more patience. Worry less. Organize more. Plan for the future. Take a vacation. Sleep more.
And those are just mine.
Honestly, I’m not one for making resolutions. Last year, for the first time in forever I actually made a resolution: Live in in the moment. I was just a few months pregnant and recognized that soon my moments would be filled with two boys instead of one. I wanted to hold onto the one-child-only moments, really be present in them, while I had the chance. Before everything changed.
Did I succeed? Yes and no.
I still struggle, often on a daily basis, to stay in the moment. I find myself multitasking when I should just be enjoying. Cleaning the kitchen, with the baby in one arm, while the kiddo, my 3.5 year old, practices cutting or writing his letters. I feel myself getting overwhelmed by what needs to be done. What I want to accomplish. What was started and never finished.
Those are my weakest moments, when I’m so focused on everything else, that I lose site of what’s right in front of me: two little boys who are growing so rapidly that I can’t even grasp it.
One full year later and I’m better able to recognize when I’m out of focus. I take a deep breath, and take inventory of what’s going on in my life. What can I let go of, even if it’s just for a day? What doesn’t need to be done at this moment? What doesn’t need to occupy my mind? I prioritize my list, and then set it aside. I make myself focus on these little boys and their accomplishments. I sit down and play with them, even if I don’t really know how to play superhero. I do it anyway, often with eye rolls from the kiddo at my complete lack of superhero skills.
So no, I haven’t succeeded if you consider that I still have to remind myself to live in the moment. It may never come naturally to me, I’m always so focused on what’s coming next. I always have been.
But, if you take into consideration the progress that I’ve made, and continue to make, then yes, I’ve succeeded.
That’s how I like to look at resolutions. They aren’t necessarily goals that you reach, but they are something to strive for. Setting goals is about the journey as much as it is about reaching them. It’s about learning and being realistic. And about accepting that we are all a work in progress.
Resolutions take time and effort. But, if they are truly important resolutions, they are worth it.
As a dear, sweet friend recently posted on Facebook, “the most important thing with [this] whole resolution business [is] progress not perfection.”
I couldn’t have said it any better myself.
What are your 2012 resolutions?
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