New Year New You?!?!

Ah, New Year's Eve.  The time of year when we set completely unrealistic goals for ourselves and eagerly jump in, only to fail by January 15.  Jaded much?

It's true, though, right?  We have all the best intentions, only to unknowingly set ourselves up for failure by taking on the world all at once.  I'm all for a big project (ask me about running distance races without training), but we (read: me) need to do it in a realistic healthy fashion.

Let's take the marathon example above.  I have run a handful of half marathons, and one full.  Before the full, I was the youngest person in my training group.  Check mark in the plus column, right?  I was also the only one who had seriously neglected my training, only doing up to 13 miles in one stretch prior to race day.  For you marathon newbies, the mighty marathon is a whopping 26.2 miles.  Yup.  D is for Dumb in my pre-race prep.  Marathon day came, and through sheer will (i.e. I'm a total stubborn ass), and a couple course angels I met along the way, I finished.  However, I couldn't walk for three days after the race.

I tell you this story for two reasons.  One, if you decide to do a marathon, TRAIN.  Two, running a marathon without building up is also how we set our resolutions.  We take on these huge tasks without first building our mileage.  You need to do some training runs before taking on the big race.  Makes sense, right?

This year, I'm setting resolutions that I will tackle all through the month of January, setting the stage for 2015.  But, this year I've worked to set a foundation for these resolutions through 2014.  These are things I've started to do a bit throughout this year that I really want to commit to in the upcoming year.  Some are teeny tiny, others are going to really take some commitment. 

I think this is another way we set ourselves up with resolutions.  One of mine?  Stop using body lotions and completely commit to coconut oil.  Silly, no?  Yup.  But, I wanted to make a mix of easy wins and resolutions that require work.  This way, there are some that come easy and others that require a bit of elbow grease to get the job done.

What are your resolutions this year?  Do you have a balance of easy achievements and those that require some serious commitment?

Happy 2015, be safe, be well...  Mamaste :)