Whew!  For some reason I am feeling pressure about my first post in 2012!  I feel I need to write more about Nia.  Well, more accurately, I would LIKE to write more posts about Nia and my Nia classes, but I don’t have to start out the New Year with a Nia post.  I feel pressure to make some grand announcement about something spectacular I plan to achieve in 2012.  I have been looking at people’s resolutions.  I don’t typically make resolutions.  Some of the resolutions I am seeing kind of strike me as odd to be resolutions, yet, at the same time if people really need to declare these things for a new year, then by all means I hope they succeed.  Yet, I am still somewhat surprised that people need to resolve to smile at strangers, encourage people to do their best, say thank you, tell their loved ones they love them, stop and smell the roses, etc.  I guess we get busy and we forget to do these things, but to me they are just part of life like brushing your teeth so I don’t need to make a new year the time I start to do these.  I was watching TMZ (Yeah, sometimes it is all that is on) and the main guy was saying something along the lines of why make resolutions and do it at the start of a new year when you can just do it at anytime of the year.  Made me laugh.  This year I am going to put some things at the fore front of my life and make sure they come before other things.  So I am going to make two resolutions.  For some of you, you will think the same as I did in thinking about the stuff I just mentioned.  You might think that these are everyday things, and for some they are, but for me I get busy, distracted, lazy, comfortable, don’t-want-to-be-a-bother, or whatever-my-excuse and I don’t always follow through.

My first resolution has to do with my 31 Day Project.  Ugh!  I started out pretty good with that, but then I went out of town for a weekend and that killed my momentum along with the fact that in December the house gets rearranged AND things come into the house.  There are Christmas decorations and gifts and other things to deal with so December was not a smart time for me to start my project.  Although it encouraged me to do a couple of things, I did not get all done that I was thinking.  So while one of my resolutions will not be to get rid of or fix one thing a day in the year, it is to get organized and to do or complete some of the projects I have sitting around.  Some of the projects have been started and some have not, but I am going to get them done this year.  With the completion of some of these projects that will help with the “getting rid of” and the organizing.  Because as you may know if you have any projects to be done you might have the supplies taking up space and as soon as the project is done you will have that space open.  I will do at least one project a month.  I don’t have 12 lying around, but I know I have at least three and there are at least nine more that I would love to do.

The other resolution is to connect with my friends, family, and people in general more.  I am a home body.  Most of the time given a choice between staying at home with my hubby and my cat or getting up, getting ready, fighting the traffic to go out, I am going to stay home.  My couch wins out over putting on makeup and “hard pants” anytime.  My cat and her meditative purring ALWAYS trumps fighting traffic.  Even domestic chores are better to me than traffic.  But when I actually force myself out, I have a great time.  Early Monday morning I was reading a friend’s blog (Zebra Sounds) and she asked her readers what they wished for in 2012 and as I was typing in the comment box that I wanted to connect more, I realized that I had just closed the Facebook page on the event without saying yes because I really wanted to be home with my hubby more than get ready to go out in the cold.  And I realized that it was silly to say “I wish” when it was ME that was in control.  So in the comment I announced I was going back to FB to say yes.  I went, and of course I had a great time.

I realize that visiting face-to-face is not always possible, especially with one of my best friends who just moved away.  So I am allowing phone calls to be part of my “connecting”.  Of course seeing someone in person is often better, but sometimes it is not possible.  And sometimes I forego the phone call because I want an in person visit, but we can’t work our schedules out so then I don’t get anything at all.  Well, I am allowing phone calls to count as connecting because for some of us that is all that we have.  I do understand that sometimes a phone call out of the blue is an interruption so I will not get my feelings hurt when someone can’t talk.  But at least I will have made the effort to connect.

I am going to continue, as I always do, in 2012 to be grateful and thankful for all of my blessings, to be more positive than negative , to smile at strangers, to encourage people, and to tell my loved ones I love them, but I am also going to try to find the top of my desk.  I am also going to try to make room in the corner of my office that is stacked full of stuff.  I am also going to get out more and connect with people.  I am also going to allow phone calls to be considered a good connection and use the phone when I can’t get in a face-to-face visit.  To all of you that succeed at doing these two things, for those of you that consider that them a normal thing, I applaud you.  Maybe you can share with me how you manage to make these things a part of your everyday life and I can learn from your tips.

We all have different life styles so our resolutions really can be very different.  Somethings that are everyday things for some of us are resolutions for others.  Did you make any resolutions?  How about goals?  Did you set any for 2012?