A Little Hodge Podge

By Tracy Astle

THIS IS THE HODGE - I must confess, I'm pretty fairly shocked. It's still the first week of the new year and not much has been said about resolutions here. I was planning on hitting a completely different topic since I thought this would have been done to death by now. I could talk ad nauseam about this, but I won't. I'll restrain myself, just give a couple of tidbits to nibble on.

I must also confess, I'm quite ambivalent about New Year's resolutions. I'm very big on goal setting, mind you, in whatever form works best for a person. I'm just not so sold on the idea that January is the time to try to overhaul one's life as people tend to do with Resolutions. (You may imagine me saying "Resolutions" in a stodgy old businessman kind of way, if you would please. It adds a nice effect.)

Too often when it comes to January of any given year our cups runneth over with good intentions that end up overwhelming us, thereby doing no good to our self esteem, our motivation or our belief in our own capability to become, in the end, the brilliant person of total awesomeness that we already are in so many ways and are destined to become fully at some glorious day in the future.

So take a breath. Relax, if need be.

If you're a Patty Plodder, awesome. I hereby grant you permission to just choose a direction, only one, that you want your life to go and head that way - at whatever pace suits you and your life circumstances right now. I know it's cliche, but this really isn't a race. Our direction is vastly more important than our speed. Do what works.

A little story - I was due with my third child in February of 1990. In late December of 1989 as all my friends were busily planning the miraculous changes they would bring to themselves and their lives by way of their very lofty and admirable Resolutions for the New Year, they would invariably ask me what my resolutions were. Frankly, I was too tired by that point in my pregnancy to even contemplate such things, so I always replied, "My resolution for 1990 is to have a baby." Then we would chuckle together. But, you know what? The more I gave that answer, the more I realized that was truly the smartest, most important thing I could possibly do at that point.

With my prior two children I had been the this-kid-isn't-going-to-slow-me-down-one-bit kind of mom. I learned with my third to slow down. I became a much better mom when I gave myself permission to have that baby be my whole life for awhile, content to watch people around me zoom on past in their personal progress. His older brothers benefited from my new attitude, too. So did I - and not just that year, but every year since then.

Now, if you're more of a Mary Motivated, that's wonderful, too. Plan away to your heart's content. If January's your time, yay. I prefer to just refresh my goals as needed whether that falls in January or any other month (or week or day) of the year. Whenever the goal setting moment comes, here's a little something for you.

Set SMART goals.

Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Realistic
Timely

Bottom line? Do what works for YOU. And to quote Walt Disney -

Keep Moving Forward.

THIS IS THE PODGE - Your dumb writerley joke for the day.

The Past, the Present and the Future walk into a bar.

It was tense.

Got any you want to share?