So..........

Here beginneth a new year..... We put so much pressure on the whole New Year thing, like one day is going to change all our bad habits and set us all on a new highway to better living.  No doubt there are times for stopping and taking stock of our lives but if we wait and only do it once a year I fear any real change will be a long time coming.
I do find some value in looking back and seeing the past year for what it was- the good , the bad , the undone, the neglected, the blessings...... that helps me see. See what was accomplished and what was not and then I decide what to do about that.
Resolutions without action plans are pretty useless anyway so I make plans and only a few make it........ I have been pondering what distinguishes these few from all the others and I think its a mixture of passion and desperation.  Either something I really really want to do or something I can no longer put off doing - it just has to be done.
For years I, like many others, have wanted to lose weight and get fit - thwarted time and again by.... myself - no time, no energy, stinky gym, cold weather, bad shoes, surgery, illness, cost, kids, work.... blah blah blah....... Then last January I took a left turn - a left turn I had driven by hundreds and hundreds of times, I drove into the parking lot and signed up for Jazzercise - I just did it, finally took a decisive step to a long desired goal.  (It had nothing to do with my looming 40th birthday of course....). And what started out as a step of desperation has turned into a passion, and so it has endured.  Next week will mark 12 months of Jazzercise for me and I feel so much better both physically and emotionally and although the results in my body are clear they are also slow (one cannot neglect ones body for 15 years and think it will bounce back) but steady. And the next 12 months do not feel like a chore to be checked off a list but rather a fun journey with some new and interesting people towards a healthier me.
Lest you think I am vain and vapid I assure you I do have loftier goals than fitness and weight loss but in many ways learning to take care of me, to do something just for me has been by far the bigger thing!