A New Year, Elephants and a Resolution

Happy 2013! Can you believe we made it? I certainly can! 2012 was a wonderful (and chaotic) year for me as I have found myself sitting in China while writing this post.

I was sitting down contemplating my list of resolutions from last year that didn’t get finished and realized that I had bitten off too much at one time! When I was a teen working on math homework (which I loathed), my dad used to tell me that instead of looking at the whole assignment, to look at one problem at a time. “It’s an elephant, Andee.” He would say, “You can’t eat an elephant in one bite, you have to take small bites to eventually eat the whole elephant.” Dad had been right, because if I focused only on the problem instead of the whole assignment, things were much easier!

Yet as an adult, I’ve forgotten that very simple lesson my dad taught me because my list of 2012 resolutions was too big! I decided to step back and change my huge pile of resolutions to just one resolution. Sure, there are lots of things that I would like to be or do, but I am not going to short change myself by giving myself a list that is too big!

Instead of trying to be a “new me” in the new year, I’m going to be a better me by only working on one resolution until it becomes a habit and I can then start working on a new thing I want to change. After all, it only takes 30 days to make a habit, so I still could theoretically finish 12 resolutions in a year. Whoops! 🙂 I’m getting ahead of myself.

My resolution for this year is to find some adventure everyday. Now you may be thinking that this does not sound very exciting, but I assure you it is! I’m in a country where I should be exploring and learning, not avoiding the very adventures outside my door.

Join me this year and make only one resolution for a “better” you. After all, we shouldn’t make our lists big elephants! I think a “better” me is much easier to handle and accomplish than a “whole new” me. What do you think?