Y Talk: New Year’s Resolutions by Michelle Bell

I am horrible at keeping New Year’s resolutions. Two years ago I resolved to take a picture out my kitchen window every day for a year. A friend of mine had done it and then put all 365 pictures together in a time-lapse video that showed the changes of the seasons. Since I had gotten a shiny new camera for Christmas that year, I was pretty pumped about this resolution…until the end of February. That’s when it went out the window (pun completely intended).

Not only am I horrible at keeping New Year’s resolutions, I’m also bad at decorating. We built our house in 2005. It took me over 6 years to hang anything on the walls in our dining room. It was a big day in February 2012 when some friends joined me to hang some decorations, including some photo frames. But my interior decorator friend said that the 5 frames we hung weren’t enough for the space. So I had to buy 4 more frames because you have to have an odd number. (Duh, everyone knows that, right?!?!) Anyway, I finally got those frames hung on the wall by the end of 2013—yes, I know that was over a year later. Let me also clarify that while the frames were on the wall, they were not filled with photos of my family and friends or any of the places we have visited. They still hold the stock photos that were in them when I bought them.

So my New Year’s resolution for 2014 was to get some photos in there besides the two strangers my kids now have named Aunt Bridget and Uncle Trent. A few of my friends have really gotten a kick out of these people and the fact that I feel no sense of urgency about getting them out of my house. I shrugged off their prods about getting pictures in there over the past 12 months, insisting that I still had plenty of time until the end of the year. But as I started to write this post on Dec. 29th, I realized that I was running out of time.

So what about you? What were your New Year’s resolutions at the beginning of 2014? Did you keep them or send them flying out the window just days, weeks or months into the New Year? If you were able to keep a resolution, how did you do it? Did you have others helping to keep you accountable? Or are you so competitive that you just won’t accept failure? Whether you kept or did not keep your resolutions, what did you learn from the experience?

Learning from the Past

As I reflect over the past year and look forward into 2015, I begin to toss around some ideas for a New Year’s resolution or two for the coming year. I have learned from my past failures (and a few successes) about what will and will not work as a resolution for me.

First of all, I should never resolve to do something every single day. It’s just not going to happen and once I miss that first day, I’m ready to throw in the towel. Secondly, doing something to honor a person or their memory is a good motivator for me. I resolved to run the JFK 50-Mile Ultramarathon in 2007 as a tribute to my late father, who had completed the race 5 times. I had attempted the race once before and missed the time cutoff by 15 minutes at mile 38. No way was I going to let that happen again. I trained harder and smarter and I’ve got the sticker on the back of my van and a medal I will cherish forever to celebrate the achievement.

Looking to the Future

I think what I’ve decided to resolve for 2015 is to be present in the lives of my husband, kids, other family members and friends. I want to carve out time to spend with the people I love most. So let’s make it official:

I, Michelle Bell, resolve to make a “date” at least once a month in 2015 to spend quality time with one or more of my favorite people.

Let’s check my list of criteria: Is it something I will have to do every day? Nope, I have at least 28 days each month to make it happen. Does it honor someone? Absolutely. It shows each of these people that they matter so much to me that I will set an appointment in my calendar to spend dedicated time with them. OK, I think I can do this one. But for right now, I need to get going so I can go through all of the photos I’ve taken in the last umpteen years. I have 9 photos frames to fill and only 2 days to do it!

-by Michelle Bell, Marketing Director​