Resolutions

I was reading a statistic that 80% of new year's resolutions fail by the beginning of February. And it occurred to me that the problem with a resolution is that we think if we don't stick to it from the beginning of the year forward, we have failed. But the truth is that you can make a resolution any time. You can make a change, you can make a choice, you can make a decision to do something different on January 1st or March 12th; the point is to keep trying. 

One thing that I realize as I get older is that the option to start again does not begin on the first day of the year- the option to begin again starts whenever you want it to. So the availability for us to change directions or change partners or change jobs or change where we live or how we live exists always. It doesn't have to be a specific time or place or day that you have to decide to make a change in your life, it's there whenever you want it. 

So maybe in knowing that the option is always there we won't be so hard on ourselves at the beginning of February having dropped off or dropped out of what we had set out so optimistically at the beginning of the year. Maybe knowing that you can make a mistake in your resolve does not obviate the resolve completely. Maybe knowing that you can make a different resolution or a modified resolution or the opposite resolution whenever you want will allow us to see and live our lives differently; more hopeful, more certain, knowing that it is never to late to change where we are or where we're going. 

Lesson learned. 

-a