fifty two

I don’t know about you, but I’m not very good at making and keeping New Year’s resolutions, never really have been though I do know that nothing beats a failure but a try. I looked up some statistics on this very subject and found the following on http://www.statisticbrain.com/new-years-resolution-statistics/:

News Year’s Resolution Statistics Data
Percent of Americans who usually make New Year’s Resolutions 45%
Percent of Americans who infrequently make New Year’s Resolutions 17%
Percent of Americans who absolutely never make New Year’s Resolutions 38%
Percent of people who are successful in achieving their resolution 8%
Percent who have infrequent success 49%
Percent who never succeed and fail on their resolution each year 24%
People who explicitly make resolutions are 10 times more likely to attain their goals than people who don’t explicitly make resolutions

Much like the lottery, we indeed must “be in it to win it”, meaning if you don’t make resolutions, there will be nothing to achieve. Rather than drafting a list that, should it see the light of day soon fades, how about a gentle alternative. This year try making small changes each week and to help you set a path, check out 52 Small Changes, a book with suggestions to get you started. Another idea that could actually net a holiday gift item takes a page from one minute mindfulness practice -- write down one thing you are grateful for at the beginning of the week and reflect on that one thing each day of the week (this is a start; anytime you’re ready, expand to more than one thing a day or week). At the end of the year, you’ll have 52 beautiful thoughts that you could turn into a book (www.blurb.com/), a true gift from the heart.

So happy journey and as you make your way…

keep your peepers open!®