New Year's non-resolutions

Or, any day can be a new year, if you want it to be.

I'd be lying if I said that I didn't make resolutions - I do - but I've never really held with making them on New Year's necessarily. Sure, I have some things in mind that I'd like for this year. I'd like to be a bit healthier, and to eat a bit better and to exercise a bit more. I'd like to be a bit more productive, and write a few more papers, present at a few more conferences, and maybe get something published. I'd like some more time with friends, some more time with me, and some other personal stuff. But these are things that I want all the time, and things that I'm willing to renew my committment too on a regular basis, not just on the first day of the year.

And so that's what I do - if I've been lax in something, I renew my committment to it. That doesn't mean I won't slip again (we all do, at some point), or pull it off perfectly the first go around. But it does allow me a lot of chances to make things better. I know we all do this anyway, and we don't rely on New Year's, and that the particular day is largely symbolic more than anything else. But I think it's important at this time of year to be reminded that we have all kinds of chances, and not just this one, to think about our lives, think about the changes that we want, and to put them into play.

This year, I guess you could say I'm going to allow any day that I want to be New Year's, and I'm going to work on whatever I want to, whenever I want to, and just keep trying to make things better.

Happy New Year's, all!