2017 is rapidly approaching… with 2 days, 2 hours and 40 minutes, give or take a few seconds to my writing this article LOL.
So what are you planning for your BIG New Year?
Dieting, a sober January, working out regularly and making more money are a few of the most popular New Year’s resolutions around. YES, we’ve all fallen victim to one or several resolutions by every December 31st. BUT… how many do we actually stick to past February 13th?
Dancing and instructing independently at many, many gyms, I can tell you January is always a HUGE month for people to get fit. The gyms make mega bucks signing people up with new year resolutions in mind.
And if you’re a nutritionist, LOOK OUT, you’re about to get hammered with 1293472346 phone calls and emails from people hunting for the latest, “fad” diet that will help them lose weight FAST.
SERIOUSLY, let’s get real for a second.
SO I absolutely admire anyone and everyone who wants to make positive changes in their lives. I think it’s AWESOME.
(I’m not going to lie… I try to do the same every new year too.)
I just don’t want us to fall victim to the “we need to change our lives this January 2017 or 2018 or 2019 for sure” and then get majorly depressed when we don’t.
I think resolutions should be ongoing. Who cares what month or year?
And STOP being so judgemental of yourself and others. Life is too short. We can all make small self improvements every day. Trying to and being a good person is most important.
Let’s just accept the fact that we are all fabulous!
Back to that January or any other month resolution idea…
If I have an epiphany in March, then I’m going to most likely start my changes and stick to them if I’m READY.
Key word here: READY.
And I’d say 99% of us who want to make changes and don’t, quite simply are not READY.
I’ll give you an example. No matter how many times I told Anton our recycling was on the right and trash on the left, he ignored me and kept placing his recycling in the trash and vice versa. So one day I place a piece of paper in the trash and he looks at me and says, “Isn’t this recycling?”
I SWEAR. Lol.
Ever since that day, I notice he’s always placing our trash and recycling in the appropriate bins.
Was it me? Something I said? Clearly NOT. He just one day woke up and decided to start paying attention to what was trash and what was recycling.
I have a friend who I’ve been trying to get to workout FOREVER. Well, he kept giving me multiple excuses (like so many my head was spinning) about why he didn’t need it or why he couldn’t find the time. Then, the moment he visits the doctor and is told he has cholesterol and blood pressure levels off the charts, he signs up for personal training and dance lessons!
Clearly none of my nagging works, EVER lol. Maybe it’s me or maybe it’s everyone else ha ha ha.
SO WHERE AM I SERIOUSLY GOING WITH ALL OF THIS? I mean, I’m kinda all over the place at the moment.
OKAY, in a nutshell. I think people make tough resolutions they CANNOT KEEP for two reasons. One, they are NOT READY. And two, we set ourselves up for failure by wanting the impossible. The majority of us want to lose 10 pounds in three days or look like the mega photo shopped model on the cover of a popular magazine.
Uh, reality check please.
Let’s not get discouraged because we are unable to attain the unattainable. Am I correct?
Or perhaps you want to make a million bucks in a year or leave your current situation and move to Thailand?
OK, great. But REALITY CHECK! All of those things take time. The first 30 days of January 2017 are most likely not going to be your window of opportunity to get EVERYTHING DONE!
But hey, with patience, positivity, determination and TIME, anything and everything is possible, RIGHT?!!
So why don’t we start with something small and much more attainable? Something free that really doesn’t take time away from our daily lives nor money nor freedom.
COMPASSION.
KINDNESS.
LOVE.
Not to sound mushy or anything, but WHY THE HECK NOT? I mean for crying out loud, it takes very little effort to hold the door open for someone 50 years your senior. Or 5 seconds out of your day to pick up some trash on your run. Rescuing an injured seagull might take an hour out of your Christmas Eve, but it can also be the most rewarding hour of your 2016! (I’m talking from experience here 🙂 ).
So here are a few simple ideas I’ve compiled for our 2017 list of resolutions. Rich, poor or somewhere inbetween, we can all perform at least one of these in the coming year!
- Volunteer at a homeless shelter for an hour.
- Pick up a piece of trash you encounter and place it in a trash can.
- Go to Thrive Animal Rescue and play with their rescued (from kill shelter) pups!
- Say hi to the lonely man at the bar on New Year’s Eve.
- Be a shoulder for your best friend to lean on in a crisis.
- Write and send an email to someone in our armed forces and tell them how grateful you are for their service.
- Hug your Mom and Dad.
- Donate old clothes to the humane society or your local thrift store.
- Let the car trying to turn in front of you last minute into your lane. Shoot, maybe they didn’t realize their turn was coming up. I have done that WAY too many times lol.
Even if we only do ONE of them in 2017, it’s one more than we did the previous year. And remember, all acts of kindness don’t affect just one person, they affect all parties involved.
Not to sound selfish or anything but I feel so amazing when I do just one of these small acts of compassion. I mean, it really does something to your heart knowing that you helped save the environment by picking up that piece of trash. Rescuing our seagull in a hail storm on Christmas Eve and driving him to Sea World made Anton and my Christmas Eve 2016 the most special we’ve shared together.
YES WE ALL WANT TO LOSE WEIGHT, MAKE MONEY AND FEEL GREAT. But don’t you think our society has become a little too much ALL ABOUT OURSELVES? Selfies, diets, what I wore and ate, who I dated, the list of “me me me” goes on and on.
I’m not saying it’s bad to share selfies and photos. Heck I do it all the time! I’m just saying it’s nice to see that as a human being, we care about our environment and the creatures that inhabit our planet, animals and humans alike. The next time I see you on instagram sharing your day with me, I’d love to see a photo of how you made a lonely widowed man’s day by saying hello at your local restaurant. Or how you played with dogs and kitties at your local animal shelter. Or how you went on a run and grabbed a few pieces of trash before it was swept out to sea and harmed an animal.
I don’t mean to sound preachy in any way! I TOTALLY NEED TO WORK ON MYSELF. I need to be more grateful each day for the life I have and amazing people and friends in it. I can always do more to make sure every recyclable item gets put in the recycle bin. I can smile at the local homeless man and drop a $1 in his tin.
There’s always something we can do. And just think, if every one of us 7.4 billion people on planet Earth performed one random act of kindness a year, that would be 7.4 billion compassionate acts. The Earth would be a cleaner, kinder, safer place. Don’t you think?
Lots to think about! I’d love to hear more ideas of what we can all do to contribute compassion to this amazing planet we get to call home!
xx Shanna
PS: Here’s Sea World’s 24/7 rescue line if you encounter an injured animal of any kind in San Diego 1.800.541.7325! Save it in your phone- based on my experience, you may be running on the beach one day and need it!