Designs on the New Year

Yes, to answer the question I'm sure a few of my loyal friends (at least the female ones) wanted to know, my New Year started with a kiss.

No, not the kind that would make both my real sisters screech: "What!?! You're blogging about it, and you didn't tell me first!"
My New Year started with an Italian kiss, as in the name vintners give when topping off a dollop of super-sweet ice wine with a splash of champagne. After reporting on ice wine yet again this past weekend, how could I not devote a few minutes to the dessert? It was delicious, and I could definitely see where they got the name! So that was one resolution down, and I hope, gets me off to a running start.

The challenge I received the morning of Dec. 31 was to live out the new year by design, not default, and the concept has really stuck with me. I suppose it helped that I heard it after reading a short essay on how the typical resolution to eat better, get more excercise and lose weight in time for swimsuit season generally moves from resolve to dissolve in the span of a few weeks, because people assume that motivation ought to precede their actions. But resolutions only produce results when it works the other way, the writer expounded: action first, then motivation will follow.

I know this personally to be true because I've lived it the past 8 months, and am proud that forcing myself to get up many a morning at what I used to consider an "ungodly hour," in order to get some vigorous excercise has really paid off (especially when combined with laying off the chips, fries and "regular" sodas, and "budgeting" for chocolate, cheesecake or ice cream.) I didn't have to make a resolution to exercise and lose weight this year because I already have. And now that I'm in a consistent routine (I start to feel antsy if I miss more than one day's workout), maintaining that is simply part of my regular schedule. Which means that, by design, I now have a more creative "health" resolution for 2007: to run a 5k (3.1 mile) race. My friend Sarah is already researching my race options.

That brings me to another element that sets successful resolutions apart from mere wishful thinking: accountability. A 5k race was Sarah's suggestion; she's run in a few (and a few longer ones). But a couple other folks also encouraged me to consider it, and between them, I am confident they won't let me brush it off. I expect to be thanking them by name the day I blog about running it. Oh yes, and I read or heard something somewhere that writing down goals so they can be reviewed later significantly increases the likelihood of reaching them. It was some mind-blowing number like only three percent of all people do that, but of those three percent, they report meeting something like 80-97 percent of those goals within in certain, do-able time frame later.

So now, without further ado, my seven resolutions for 2007:
(As befits the ReD Zone, they are in random order.)
1) Run a 5k, probably in Rochester.
2) Blog more by writing less but writing more often (I'm guessing I'll have a volunteer to hold me accountable on this one.)
3) Hang my photos, break out the stoneware and CDs and host friends in my new "home," (preferably more than just a few times) no matter where or what that place may be.
4) Find my signature raspberry wine or champagne. Go looking for said selection along the Seneca Wine Trail.
5) Embrace change by looking inward, upward, then outward, so that "the future" which is actually MY future, becomes less about fear, security or safety and more about potential and promise. Ensure that this includes time to rest and reflect and not just "ram around," as my mother would say. Apply to relationships of all sorts (personal, professional, spiritual). For example, intentionally choose to sacrifice time I could spend doing other things to stay in touch with "friends on the fringe." I'm sure my married sister would also insist one particular aspect of "embracing change" be defined as smiling at cute guys, or something akin to that.
6) Marry more of my writing with my passions, and find more ways to profit from it.
7) Celebrate everything about 7's! (I consider it my lucky number, especially given some of its spiritual implications, so to go from a few random days that end in 7's or are divisible by 7, to a whole year that has to do with the 7 is very cool.) Celebrations might include ice cream, ice wine, popcorn, movies, books, photographs, flowers, music and absolutely must include laughter.

Here's to a New Year by design, not default. Cheers!