Words for 2011

What is your New Year’s resolution? I have found that I’m compulsively asking that question of everyone I know. The problem is that I don’t have one. After I said about a week ago that I was vowing to make up my bed every morning of 2011 and Mr. Alpha Male laughed me out of the room, I find that I’m not all that resolved about anything. My only resolution is to keep living everyday and working everyday toward my goals, just as I have done all of 2010. But, that is nothing new. So instead of declaring a resolution for the new year, I am choosing to have words to live by for 2011.

The first words to live by come from my Dad when I was a little girl. Every time I can recall scraping a knee or bumping an elbow and would crumple to the ground in a ball of crying blonde mush, he would say, “Hurry and get up before you get hurt.” Not only is this great advice for playing any sport where trampling is an issue, it is great life advice. We all fall down in some way or another be it job loss, divorce, parenting mishaps, or just day to day foibles. However, the faster we pick ourselves up and move on, the less hurt will set into our bones.

The second words to live by come from the guy that taught me in driver training when I was 15. I have no idea what his name was, but I remember when he said, “Don’t look at the cars, look at the space between them. Don’t look at where you can’t go, look at where you can go.” Not only did this get me over my fear of changing lanes, it got me over my fear of changing tracks in life. This wild journey we are on weaves us onto some of the most unexpected roads and occasionally it leaves us stranded at a truck stop or two. However, if we look at where we can go the options are limitless.

In 2011 I will continue to get up and look where I can go every day.

I will continue to live every day to the fullest.

I will live on faith, love and coffee, just as I have in 2010.

And, on at least a few of the days in 2011, I will make my bed.

What is your New Year’s resolution?