Elephant Eating Etiquette

No Senior is safe on New Year's Eve. Life is just waiting around the corner in 2013 and that's the night to jump right out and snag it by the coat tails. Right? Right. Hold onto your new found freedom with both hands and fly into 2013 hot on its heels. That is what every Senior should do. That's what every Senior did, I'm sure.

Every Senior...but me.

My New Year's Eve was spent asleep on my parents' bed, recovering from my wisdom teeth being cut out of their happy little homes in my mouth. Something about the pain medication and inability to effectively communicate gives a girl some time to think, though, and thinking is one of my favorite things to do. So while everyone around me danced their way out of 2012, I delved into the deep places of my life and dreams to usher in 2013.

Resolutions. New Year's Resolutions was a topic often on my mind during my time of thought. I remembered my previous Resolution Lists - those ongoing promises to myself that I would change every flaw into perfection. I remembered how most of those promises never were fulfilled and how I ended every year still flawed in all of the same places. What was wrong? Surely my goals were not too high. Yes I lacked motivation, but how could I change that?

It came to me during my time laying around doing nothing. My goals were not too high, nor were my expectations impossible achieve. My self-discipline, though lacking, was not to be blamed for my failed Resolutions either. It was my plan of attack. Setting goals for self-improvement is a wonderful thing.

But how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.

I have set three fundamental goals for myself this year. Goals that I believe will carry me well through life. But I cannot, and will not, be attacking them all at once as I have tried before - it obviously does not work. No, this year I'm taking it all one bite at a time.

I cannot change overnight. Neither can you. Just because you wrote something down on a piece of paper saying "I will not drink coke" or "I will exercise" doesn't mean you will be able to pick that up in the flick of a wrist. Take every goal one step at a time. Start small, and then grow. Break things down and do them in bite sized parts. Don't become discouraged. You can do it; your New Year's Resolutions can become Old Year's Successes.

Just remember the Elephant Eating Etiquette : one bite at a time.