Phew! So now the holidays are now just a mere blip in the history of Gregorian calendars (and folklore in Mayan Calendars), we can all really exhale a collective sigh of relief and get down to business. Wait…what business? Being our normal boring selves, perhaps? Settling back into our regular routines? Or possibly with no other holiday-related things to worry about, like gifts and wishlists and travel and time off and Christmas cookies and more Christmas cookies, it’s time to worry about not making the grade on that promise we made to ourselves just a few days ago – the New Year’s Resolution – that obligatory goal that we set up in our minds for inevitable failure.
Fear not! According to a recent Harris Poll I just read about, a full 73% of us will break our New Year’s Resolution within the first 6 weeks! That means – you’re part of the majority if you fail miserably at it. But those were particularly fitness-related resolutions. What about the others? To clean out that garage… get organized…pay off credit cards… or be a better parent?
With that new mysterious realm of resolution-possibilites looming over me, I did the only thing I could do – to not make a resolution at all. How could I? I mean, we all want to be 10 lbs lighter, correct? Here I am 20 lbs heavier than usual (and counting)… it’s absurd to think I could be looking ahead at months of post-partum fitness goals, when I can barely get myself to roll off the couch without straining my ab muscles already. I could resolve to tackle everything on my pre-baby to-do list, but most of those are things that HAVE to be done anyways – duh – so that would be a wasted (yet easily obtainable) resolution. And I could resolve to be a great parent… but I have no idea what I’m getting myself into, what “kind” of parent I will naturally be, or what obstacles I’m going to tackle until they’re right in front of me. So I have no right making that resolution.
I came across this other blog on modernmom.com which at least put that part in perspective for me. It seems even after the baby arrives and you’re a bona fide momma, you’re still left verklempt with ways you can resolve to start the new year in a fresher mommy-tastic fashion.
Blog author Leslie Morgan Steiner writes,
“I’m reminded of my lifelong quest to lose five pounds. When I was age 15, 20, 30, and 40, I desperately wanted to be just a little skinnier. Now, looking back at photos of myself at those ages, I looked great. Five pounds would not have improved my physique one iota.
Why couldn’t I see myself clearly, in real time? Is it possible that today, as I sit here ruing the extra five (ok, maybe fifteen) pounds sitting on my lap, I look just as good? Or good enough?
Same with motherhood.”
That said, and perspective firmly in place, I did come up with one sort-of resolution… to be kinder to myself, my worst critic. And resolve to fix the things I’ve broken along the way, whether Jan.1st or July 22nd.
