I RESOLVE TO . . .

I Resolve To™ . . . Be Open To Good Things In My Resolution-Keeping Journey! - Day 83

I spend a portion of my day reading news articles, studies, 'how-to's', and blog posts about New Year Resolutions.  It is a blend of insights ranging from common sense information on how to make and keep resolutions,to the daily chronicling of the journey by folks who are working hard to stick with their goals.  I've been studying what works and what doesn't work since I began tracking my own exercise resolution January 1, 2005 in my first blog, ACreativeLife.Com.  I kept a daily exercise diary that was a case-study of sorts, that helped me to understand my own methods of goal-setting. I built my I Resolve To . . . System of resolution-keeping around my habits and what I've learned by studying resolution-making-and-keeping.  I've discovered that one common sense key to success is maintaining a positive attitude throughout the ups and downs, and reminding yourself that troubles will pass and things will get better. Often you have to start over and over again before you succeed, which requires a healthy dose of optimism an commitment.

In in effort to maintain my own even-keel optimism, I intend to 'Remember Good Things Might Be Right Around The Bend, as part of my I Resolve To . . .  Challenge:  365 Resolutions For Health & Happiness.  Why not join me?  The objective is very simple:  Do at least one thing each and every day to promote health and happiness for 'YOU'.  Banish the 'Someday, Someday, Someday Syndrome'.  Instead, make every day New Year's Day.  Make every day count.  The list of possibilities is infinite and can be tailored to your own dreams, resolutions and daily goals.  If you need some help - a little nudge, a bit of inspiration, tips, advice, and news about the best ways to make resolutions a reality - please use IResolveTo.Com as one of your resources.  Resolve365 in 2009.

In addition to learning new things about New Year Resolutions, my daily effort to educate myself has introduced me to a wide array of wonderful people who are pursuing their passions and 'doing what they love', which is another key to success if you want to achieve New Year Resolutions.  I recently was introduced, online, to Diane Wright, a New Yorker, whose passion is quilting.  She authors the blog:  Diane Wright Art Quilts.  Personally, I am very inspired by both creativity and accomplishment displayed by others, especially when they are pursuing their dreams and passions.  I left Diane a pleasant comment on her blog and she responded with an equally pleasant E-mail.  I wanted to share her observations because they are so positive:

        "I'm glad you stumbled onto my blog...it lead me to yours. Today, a really wonderful spring day in NYC, two very nice things happened to me.  At a quilt show without a camera I asked a woman with a camera in front of a work I admired,  "would you consider doing something nice for a complete stranger?"  'Yes', she replied, 'what?'.  I asked her if she would take a pic of the work and email it to me.  She did.  I gave her my card.  Then she laughed and said it would be the first one she'd ever sent...a learning experience for her. Then on the Metro North return trip home, out of the 125th St. station the conductor came thru and encountered a fellow in front of  us, with a credit card and no ticket.  Conductor:  "No, we only  accept cash on the train"...."Well, you will have to exit at Stamford, purchase a ticket and catch the next train".  "Well, it will be about an hour before the next ones comes".  "You are not from here are you?"...."Well, in the United States, you purchase the ticket and then get on the train...that's the way it is".  "Where are you from?"  "Okay, just this once.  I will show you American hospitality.  Welcome."  Thumbs up from all the nearby passengers.  To the other passengers:  "The next time you are in Slovakia I hope  you are welcomed".  I love spring.  Thanks for your comment on my blog."

When you are open to good things, willing to look for the positive amid a lot of negative that swirls around in day-to-day life, it is amazing what you learn, the people that you meet, the wonderful things that you experience, and the fabulous things that you achieve.  With that in mind, I intend to keep looking for the 'good things' that just might be around the bend.

Remember:  I Resolve To . . . Achieve My New Year Resolutions, One Resolution, One Day At A Time For One Year.  It's your choice.  Do it today. Turn your resolution into reality in five simple, common sense steps:  Dare To Dream, Decide, Define, Develop A Plan, and Do It Daily. Make your resolution a permanent Lifetime Resolution, something that's with you for good!  Above all, Be A Resolutionista, someone who makes resolutions, keeps resolutions, and enjoys the journey!  Let's Go For It!

Need More Inspiration?  Wear Your Resolution By Visiting The I Resolve To . . . Shop At CafePress:  I Resolve To . . . Resolutionista Gear And By Joining The Official I Resolve To . . . Group At Gather.Com.

Kim M. Simpson - March 24, 2009
Copyright © I Resolve To™ . . . * All Rights Reserved   

Need More Inspiration?  Wear Your Resolution By Visiting The I Resolve To . . . Shop At CafePress:  I Resolve To . . . Resolutionista Gear And By Joining The Official I Resolve To . . . Group At Gather.Com.

Kim M. Simpson - March 24, 2009
Copyright © I Resolve To™ . . . * All Rights Reserved   

New Year Possibilities -

"The Old Year has gone.  Let the dead past bury its own dead.  The New Year has taken possession of the clock of time.  All hail the duties and possibilities of the coming twelve months!"

Edward Payson Powell - From Quotegarden

New Year, What We Eat -

"People are so worried about what they eat between Christmas and the New Year, but they really should be worried about what they eat between the New Year and Christmas."

Author Unknown - From Quotegarden

One Resolution -

"One resolution I have made, and try always to keep, is this:  To rise above the little things."

John Burroughs - From Quotegarden

Good New Year Resolutions -

"Good resolutions are simply checks that men draw on a bank where they have no account."

  Oscar Wilde - From Quotegarden

New Year Potential -

"We spend January 1 walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched.  Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives... not looking for flaws, but for potential."

Ellen Goodman - From Quotegarden

No Resolutions For The New Year -

"I made no resolutions for the New Year.  The habit of making plans, of criticizing, sanctioning and molding my life, is too much of a daily event for me." 

Anaïs Nin - From Quotegarden

New Year's Eve -

"Every man regards his own life as the New Year's Eve of time." 

Jean Paul Richter - From Quotegarden

New Year Improvements -

"Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each new year find you a better man." 

Benjamin Franklin  - From Quotegarden

New Year, Year's End -

"Year's end is neither an end nor a beginning but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us."

Hal Borland - From Quotegarden

New Year's Day -

"New Year's Day is every man's birthday. "

Charles Lamb - From Quotegarden

Ring Out The Old, Ring In The New -

"Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true."

Alfred, Lord Tennyson, 1850 - From Quotegarden

New Year's Day, Annual Good Resolutions -

"New Year's Day:  Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions.  Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual.

Mark Twain - From Quotegarden

New Year's Eve Like Every Other Night -

"New Year's eve is like every other night; there is no pause in the march of the universe, no breathless moment of silence among created things that the passage of another twelve months may be noted; and yet no man has quite the same thoughts this evening that come with the coming of darkness on other nights."

Hamilton Wright Mabie - From Quotegarden

New Year's Eve -

"Youth is when you're allowed to stay up late on New Year's Eve.  Middle age is when you're forced to. 

Bill Vaughn - From Quotegarden

I Resolve To . . . Do's -

Dare To Dream . . .

"Dare to dream, decide, define, develop a plan, and do it daily.  If you follow those five steps, in one year you would be amazed how much you can achieve with a cherished goal.  Think of the journey as one goal, one day at a time for one year.  Then go for it!"

Copyright 2005-2007 Kim M. Simpson/ I Resolve To * All rights Reserved.

I Resolve To . . . Thoughts For The New Year -

One Wish . . .

"If you could make one wish, knowing it would be granted with no questions asked, what would it be?  Don't think too long or too hard.   Go with your first reaction.  You don't need a Fairy God Mother or a winning lottery ticket to achieve your heart's desire.  Passion deep within your heart and soul, hidden or unseen, is waiting for a spark.  Light that spark and fan the flame.  The power is within each one of us to grant our own wish."

Copyright 2005-2007 Kim M. Simpson/I Resolve To, Inc *  All Rights Reserved.

"If you could make one wish, knowing it would be granted with no questions asked, what would it be?  Don't think too long or too hard.   Go with your first reaction.  You don't need a Fairy God Mother or a winning lottery ticket to achieve your heart's desire.  Passion deep within your heart and soul, hidden or unseen, is waiting for a spark.  Light that spark and fan the flame.  The power is within each one of us to grant our own wish."

Copyright 2005-2007 Kim M. Simpson/I Resolve To, Inc *  All Rights Reserved.

"If you could make one wish, knowing it would be granted with no questions asked, what would it be?  Don't think too long or too hard.   Go with your first reaction.  You don't need a Fairy God Mother or a winning lottery ticket to achieve your heart's desire.  Passion deep within your heart and soul, hidden or unseen, is waiting for a spark.  Light that spark and fan the flame.  The power is within each one of us to grant our own wish."

Copyright 2005-2007 Kim M. Simpson/I Resolve To, Inc *  All Rights Reserved.

New Year Thoughts -

Life . . .

"It's all about setting priorities, doing the best you can, celebrating your wins, learning from your losses, and just 'getting up the next day to do it all over again.'"   

Copyright *  2005-2007 Kim M. Simpson/I Resolve To * All Rights Reserved

"It's all about setting priorities, doing the best you can, celebrating your wins, learning from your losses, and just 'getting up the next day to do it all over again.'"   

Copyright *  2005-2007 Kim M. Simpson/I Resolve To * All Rights Reserved

New Year Rhymes -

"What can be said in New Year rhymes,

That's not been said a thousand times.

The new years come, the old years go,

We know we dream, we dream we know.

We rise up laughing with the light,

We lie down weeping with the night.

We hug the world until it stings,

We curse it then and sigh for wings.

We live, we love, we woo, we wed,

We wreathe our prides, we sheet our dead.

We laugh, we weep, we hope, we fear,

And that's the burden of a year."

Ella Wheeler Wilcox - American Poet & Writer (1850-1919) - From Thinkexist.com

A New Year -

"Cheers to a New Year and another chance for us to get it right."

Oprah Winfrey - American Television Personality, Actress & Producer - (Born 1954) - From Thinkexist.com

New Year's Day -

"We will open the book.  Its pages are blank.  We are going to put words on them ourselves.  The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day.

Edith Lovejoy Pierce - Poet (Born 1904) - From Thinkexist.com

New Year Resolutions -

"May all your troubles last as long as your New Year's resolutions."

Joey Adams - American Comedian, Actor (1911-1999) - From Thinkexist.com

My New Year Resolution -

"I have no way of knowing how people really feel, but the vast majority of those I meet couldn't be nicer.  Every once in a while someone barks at me.  My New Year's Resolution is not to bark back."

Tucker Carlson - MSNBC Political Commentator - From Thinkexist.com

January The Second -

"I do think New Year's resolutions can't technically be expected to begin on New Year's Day, don't you?  Since, because it's an extension of New Year's Eve, smokers are already on a smoking roll and cannot be expected to stop abruptly on the stroke of midnight with so much nicotine in the system.  Also dieting on New Year's Day isn't a good idea as you can't eat rationally but really need to be free to consume whatever is necessary, moment by moment, in order to ease your hangover.  I think it would be much more sensible if resolutions began generally on January the second." 

Helen Fielding, Bridget Jones's Diary

New Year -

"Many people look forward to the new year for a new start on old habits."

Author Unknown

Yesterday -

"Yesterday, everybody smoked his last cigar, took his last drink and swore his last oath.  Today, we are a pious and exemplary community.  Thirty days from now, we shall have cast our reformation to the winds and gone to cutting our ancient shortcomings considerably shorter than ever."

           Mark Twain

New Year Optimism -

"An optimist stays up until midnight to see the new year in.  A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves."

Bill Vaughan

Auld Lang Syne

"Should auld acquaintance be forgot
and never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot
and days of auld lang syne?
For auld lang syne, my dear,
for auld lang syne,
we'll take a cup of kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

Should auld acquaintance be forgot
and never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot
and days of auld lang syne?
And here's a hand, my trusty friend
And gie's a hand o' thine
We'll tak' a cup o' kindness yet
For auld lang syne"

Holiday Behavior -

"The proper behavior all through the holiday season is to be drunk.  This drunkenness culminates on New Year's Eve, when you get so drunk you kiss the person you're married to." 

P.J. O'Rourke

New Habits -

"Many people look forward to the new year for a new start on old habits." 

Author Unknown

White Vows -

"The new year begins in a snow-storm of white vows."

George William Curtis - From The Quotegarden