Ringing in 2009

Every year I think about making New Year's resolutions and every year I either come up with too many things to change that it makes me feel like I was a total failure in the prior year or think of goals that are totally unattainable for me, ie I will go to the gym and work out for 2 hours every day. This year though, I think it will be different. I do not want to change every single thing about myself or my life. I am happy with the many things that I have and thankful for everything and everyone. In 2009, my goal is to just make them better.

I will have more good days than bad days. The title of this section was going to be "I will be a better mom." But I think that every mom out there has days where they are the greatest mom ever and then there are days when they feel that they should be on par with Mommy Dearest, without the physical stuff. I am no different. When I used to be a full-time-working-for-someone-else-mom-with-an-office, there were so many days I hated leaving my kids to go to work. On the other hand, there were a good number of days that I was plenty happy to leave them with a babysitter and go to work. I've realized that I will never be perfect. I've realized that I will never not get frustrated with my kids and they will never not get frustrated with me. I've realized that they will never keep their stuff put away or listen to me 100% of the time. But in 2009, I am going to do my best to keep my cool and not lose it on a daily basis. I've realized that my kids are kids and that making mistakes is the best way for them to learn. And I've realized that I will make plenty of mistakes too. I think though that realizing that I will never be perfect and striving to do better than I did last year is the best goal that I can make.

I will be a better friend. Over the past few years, I've kept the same friends I've had almost my whole life, made new friends and reconnected with old friends. I've also learned a lot about what makes up a real friend and in turn, who my real friends are. Real friends are those who are there for you through the good and the bad. They understand that sometimes you act one way and sometimes you act another, but they know who you really are deep down inside. They know when your emotions are talking, they know when to give advice and they know how far to go. They also know that it's always better to say something to you than to tell anyone who will listen. This year, I realized all of this and more and gained a lot of insight into the kind of friends that I want and the kind of friend that I want to be to people.

I will let go of the negative and only think positively. I've posted about The Secret, talked about my desires to leave a job that I hated and be able to live my life the way I want to live it. I've talked and talked and talked about it and it's finally all come true. 2009 is going to be a huge year for this business that I started a little more than two years ago. It's going to be the make it or break it year. It's going to become a huge success or, well, I'm not going to think about the alternative. In the next few weeks I am going to sit down and actually create a vision board and plan how I am going to work towards achieving my goals, all the while thinking that it is definitely going to happen. Because for me, there truly is no other option.