We’re only a few days from February: How many of you are still keeping to your resolutions? How many of you made resolutions? How many of you know what a resolution means?
Dictionary.com lists one definition of “resolution” as a decision or determination. So what decision did we make for this year? To save more money? Eat better? Finally start using the treadmill gathering cobwebs in the basement corner?
For whatever reason, we often think a resolution has to be this grandiose idea we must let everyone know on social media. We think that if we put it out there others will hold us accountable and we’ll have to stick to it. Friends, that is not the case. The resolutions we make are for ourselves and not for others.
I used to make big resolutions like the ones above, but things changed when I became a parent. I realized this: While it’s good to be healthier and wiser with your money, the main thing you need to do every year is be better than you were the year before. You do not have to change much about yourself if you just try to do a little better.
That is my resolution every year: Do better.
And what does this mean?
To me it means to be there more for my children — every day. For example, one year I started working two jobs, leaving me pretty tired during the week. However, instead of focusing on being tired, I refocused the energy I did have toward my children. Whether it meant reading a few books with them or just being silly with them in the house until we fall down from laughing too hard. I want their memories of their dad to be good ones, not “dad was always too tired to play with us.”
I also need to do better with the world around me. While I know I cannot change every problem in the world right now, I can change what is going on around me. I can smile more to the people I pass on the street as I walk to work. That one smile could change a person’s day. Try it out sometimes. Just smile. And say hello to people, too.
We have to remember we are our children’s role models. As their parents, we must set a good example for them. If our children see us trying a little harder every day to improve the world around us, it will encourage them to have that mentality in life. I would love if my children never stopped doing better their entire lives and always strive to be better than they were the day before.
Just imagine how much our children can accomplish if we showed them how to do better.
So if your New Year’s diet plan hasn’t been working out like you hoped, instead try focusing on what you can do better for yourself and others. And try doing that a little more of that each day.
Photo: © Natallia / Adobe Stock.
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