Why We Should Break with Tradition

This morning, I woke up to The Weather Channel announcing "Binghamton, we forgot our resolutions already, too!"

So, I got to thinking.

It's January 1.

It's a brand new beginning.

I'm hung over.

I've been privileged to see a lot of new years, and - you know what, The Weather Channel is right!  Except, they were trying to be funny about it.

Year after year, we make all these great resolutions.  We are going to do this.  We are going to accomplish that.  Then, we don't do the work, and it doesn't happen.  We say, "oh, to heck to it" and go back to doing all the things we have been doing to hurt our minds and bodies, to hold ourselves back from true happiness, or to improve our health.  Nothing changes.

This is why we should sometimes break with tradition.  Sometimes, tradition is not something you want to pass down. 

I've been reading a lot lately about people who choose a word at the beginning of every year, and, when the alarm woke up my spouse so he could go to work this morning, the word came to me

DIFFERENT.

I rarely make resolutions, so this year will be different.

If I do something the same old way that doesn't benefit me or my family, I will see if I can do something DIFFERENT.

I will break with personal tradition when that tradition is hurtful.

Who knows, I may even change my blogging habits (but it's too soon for me to implement anything - and I have made commitments for January, already).

I know too many people who were diagnosed with serious illnesses last year, or were undergoing treatment for serious illnesses, and even a couple who passed from serious illnesses.  One of my cousins nearly died a week before Christmas from an asthma attack and ended up in the ICU.  (He's home, now.)

Eventually, we all realize that our days on Earth are not indefinite.

 I don't know if seeing this kind of thing around you is the best way to realize something, but in thinking about these individuals, I know that this year is going to be DIFFERENT.

The question for today is, will I be like those folks at the Weather Channel, boasting of how they've already forgotten their resolutions?

The answer is:  it really doesn't matter, because this is a year long challenge.  If I don't succeed today, there is no reason to quit.  I just try again tomorrow. That's a lesson Weight Watchers taught me over two years ago, and it's an important lesson.

Will you break from tradition and make changes in your life that are long overdue?

This is my first post in two challenges:  The Ultra Blog Challenge and the Ultimate Blog Challenge. I look forward to these two month long challenges, and with all my readers, new and old, a happy, DIFFERENT, New Year.