Resolutions -- #1 Reduce Stress

It seems that only yesterday we were watching Dick Clark count down the seconds till midnight as we made up our goals for the approaching new year. Well, we are already more than three weeks into it and we are doing quite well with some of our pledges and not so well with others. And just how well is your diet going? Surprisingly, while losing weight is one of the top three resolutions it is not in the number one slot. That honor(?) belongs to Reducing Stress. Cutting back on food is second. Fixing finances falls in at number three. It’s interesting to note that the top two resolutions focus on maintaining and improving health. Of course, getting your financial situation in order falls under the health promotion banner when you take into consideration the fact that having a healthy relationship with money can significantly reduce your stress. These resolutions show what we truly hold dear -- our physical well-being! As they say -- when you have your health, you have everything. The first step toward good health is stress reduction.

Resolutions are a great motivator for change. We sit down, think about what's really important to us, figure out what we are doing wrong and make plans to make our lives work better. Something we do in our home every December is to gather as a family and discuss our goals for the new year. When you fail to plan, you plan to fail -- or so the saying goes. We write down our categories: Home, Health, Money, Family, etc. and then create a list of what we wish to accomplish in the next 365 days.

One of our resolutions is to further improve our family relationships. With everyone so busy and with such scattered schedules it is important to take the time to nurture the loving bonds we have with one another. We plan to take at least three family weekend getaways this year. We’ve found that these little trips bring us closer together and reduce the sibling rivalry in the household. A shared history and time together are the bricks and mortar used to construct strong families. In addition to these journeys we will join together as we joyously wander into the local YMCA to build our relationships while we build our muscles.

The above resolutions are pretty general and pretty open-ended. We set a deadline and schedule our more concrete goals such as painting the front porch by the end of March. This gets written on the family calendar at the beginning of February (to remind us) and at the beginning of March (to spur us on). We then have monthly family meetings to review our goals and make adjustments as needed.

Honestly, we are human and we do break some of our resolutions from time to time. The key thing though is to not beat yourself up about it. When you fall off your horse, you’ve got to get back on. Don’t punish yourself when you eat that second slice of cake, just strengthen your resolve. Review your goals and continuously map out your path. And if one of your resolutions just happens to be reducing stress in your life, please take care of yourself with some of our stress reducers.