New Year's Resolutions: Are you 'For' or 'Against' them?

I'm for. 

I'm just gonna get that right out there. I know it's a topic of some controversy, and I totally get that. After all, why wait for a season or specific time to set self-improvement goals? Shouldn't we be living well all the time? 

My reason for setting resolutions has a lot to do with my need to live seasonally. Growing up in the Midwest meant I marked specific times of my year by how the weather changed. Summer meant kicking back with less responsibility and longer days for play. Fall meant a welcome transition to crisp mornings and a more structured routine. Winter brought on celebration, cold-weather coziness and yes ... holiday indulgence. But what to do when the indulgence was over, and we were still stuck in winter? For me, the answer is still the same: Reset, and ... yep, improve. Set goals. Return to a healthier, post-holiday lifestyle. 

When Jason and I moved to Hawaii, I started to have a hard time with this aspect of my life. There were no seasons to mark time by, and thus, it was harder for me to switch gears during specific times of the year. To illustrate this, I like to tell friends and family about our first Christmas there. I remember sitting in front of our lit tree, fanning myself from the extra heat the tree lights emitted during an already-hot day. I just remember crying, waving my hands around my face to create some extra cool air and thinking, "this isn't how it's supposed to be!" Without pronounced seasons (and, thus, seasons of change), I just felt rudderless. 

From all of our moves since then, I learned to create my own seasons — internally marking the time with customs and traditions that helped me transition. One of which still remains: The New Year's Resolution. 

It's been a wonderful Christmas holiday, full of family fun, great food and rest. (We even got to experience some of the Midwest cold I still crazily long for this time of year). Tomorrow, we take off to Denver to ring in the new year with my sister and some good friends who live there. But after that, it's time to get back down to serious business: Full work weeks will resume. Vacation will be over. I'll most likely be carrying around a little extra holiday weight (#sorrynotsorry). 

So this year, I'm keeping it simple: I plan to increase the yoga and cut back on sugar again. I was doing great with minimizing my sugar intake until the holidays hit and I consciously took a break from my sugar hiatus. (Can you take a break from a hiatus? I digress ...)

Anyway, for me, this "return" to healthier priorities is probably all I'll need to feel as if I'm really making the transition from 2017 to 2018 and from 36 to 37 (yep ... I had a birthday somewhere during the Holidays, too!).

I'm never too hard on myself, or too public about these sorts of resolutions (until now that I'm blogging about it, I guess). So we'll see where it goes. But the bottom line is that, for me, transition (in the form of a resolution) is healthy. So I'm all for it!

Are you for or against New Year's Resolutions? Or neutral? If you're making one, please share! I'd love to hear about it. 

Happy New Year!