New Years Resolutions and 43 Things

New Years is by far my favorite holiday.  While most holidays are sort of cozy times spent with family, New Year's Eve is an elegant and exciting night to get dressed up and celebrate with friends.  It is glitzy and glamorous, an evening filled with glitter, sparklers, fireworks, and champagne toasts to a new beginning.  Besides the New Year Eve celebrations, what I love most about New Years is it is a time to come full circle, to look back on what you have done over the past year, and decide where you are going in the new year.  Many people do this by making new year's resolutions.  

In popular culture, the new years resolution is regarded as something you say you will do, but promptly forget.  For me, though, new years resolutions are a serious and important part of my life.  When I heard about the custom as a little girl, I immediately embraced the idea.  I recall scribbling out new year's resolutions at my grandma's kitchen table when I was about ten.  Haha..I wonder what my ten year old self wanted to achieve... If only I had that loose-leaf page!  I do have a little notebook where I have kept new years resolutions and other goals since my late teens.  I regard my resolutions as true goals.  Sometimes they are goals I can achieve in a year's time, others are ongoing and life-long.  While writing my new years resolutions, I let my self dream big.  What is amazing to me, looking back, is that some of my resolutions were just pie-in-the-sky fantasies when I wrote them down, but years later I have completed many of those almost-forgotten goals that I once thought impossible.  This does not surprise me, since I strongly believe in the law of attraction.  For me, writing down goals each year in the form of new years resolutions is not an act of empty promises, it is a means to use the power of intention to build a better life.

Since this process is so important in my life, I wanted to share with you a website called 43things that I use which allows you to list goals you would like to accomplish.  43things is a slightly interactive goal-setting community. You can view other's goals, "cheer" goals (the 43things equivalent of a facebook "like"). You can comment on posts or message members.  When you complete a goal, you can write a post about how you did it to help others who want to do the same thing.  You can also read "How I Did It" posts to get information about your goals.  Completed goals are added to a things done list so you can look back on what you have accomplished.  I find this site so useful and helpful in keeping my goals in sight!  I try to check in often to read my list of goals and make any updates.  

I said the site was slightly interactive because, while your posts are public, your profile is very low-key and only gives as much information as you want to put out.  My 43things profile is very discreet and without information that identifies me such as my picture.  Some people use their real name and photos, it depends on your taste.  You also don't have to interact with other members if it doesn't interest you.  You can use it strictly as a place to keep track of your goals.  I like the "cheer" aspect though, to me it's almost like a little prayer for your goals.  So, I cheer others and like to get cheers.  I have also had experiences where someone posted something helpful or said one of my posts benefited them, and that is pretty awesome! 

43things has a separate list to add your new year's resolutions.  You can check them off when they are accomplished, and look back on prior years.  So, if you are thinking about setting some new year's resolutions, you might want to check out 43things, its a really useful website.  

I wish you the best luck in accomplishing your dreams in 2013!  Hope it's a wonderful year for you.