New Year Resolutions or Long Term Lifestyle Changes?

I like making New Year’s long term lifestyle changes better than New Year’s resolutions.  Long term lifestyle changes require we change our thinking, and that in itself is tedious, but the results from just the effort alone can be very rewarding. They are not quick fixes to problems that plagued us in the past year, or temporary band aids like resolutions can be, instead they gives us opportunities to acquire knowledge about ourselves and achieve long term results.  The benefits of your labor are rewarding in the fact that the changes that you are striving for are changes that can become permanent and good.

Times past, whenever I wanted to incorporate positive long term lifestyle changes into my daily walk, I would write down the changes that I wanted to make and the reasons why I wanted to make them, (weighed my pros and cons).   Hindsight 20 20,  what I was striving to create and have wasn’t as hard for me as me not wanting change and being a burden to my own personal growth, doing absolutely nothing at all to self, or for self.   I learned that when I make healthy, permanent lifestyle changes that this is an indication that i have decided to accept responsibility for my life, my health and situations that have occurred. I can decide what I want my life to become.  I can strive towards obtaining whatever I deem good and positive and right for me.

I want to be happy in life.  I want to find the good in life.  I want to see the good in life. I want to love in life. I want to spread love in life.  I want to have compassion when I have to be very firm in decision making.  And all these things are more than possible.  When we give freely of ourselves, and be open to change in our lives, we can have a larger than life experience with the Most High.  We can love each other, and love ourselves.  Does it get difficult sometimes?  Hell Yes.  Period. Yes it does. But we can do it.

I’ve started on my New Year’s Lifestyle Changes list already.  I’ve got some pretty good changes I want to put into action.  And guess what? Some of these things have found their way onto this list from a list of three years ago.  You know what else?  One of my changes to incorporate is this idea: It’s o.k. to start over.  It’s o.k. to redo some things that didn’t work out right the first time.  It’s even ok to dust off the old idea, spruce it up and add new twists to it.

Promptly and joyfully I hope to see you in 2011. Change in action.