Creating New Years resolutions is a tradition that dates back to 153 BC. Stories claim that:  Janus, a mythical king of early Rome was placed at the head of the calendar.  With two faces, Janus could look back on past events and forward to the future. Janus became the ancient symbol for resolutions and many Romans looked for forgiveness from their enemies and also exchanged gifts before the beginning of each year.

Thus became the tradition of the new year being a time to look forward to the future with new intentions, changes, and resolutions.

While resolutions are a lovely idea,  a recent study showed that only 1 out 10 people actually stick to their resolutions. I think the reason being is most of us (myself included) come up with a list of nearly impossible resolutions that are magically suppose to start on January 1rst.

So this year, instead of re-creating my usual promises

 to stop eating dairy, sugar, white flours, artificial foods and workout for 2 hours every single day while I quit drinking more than one alcoholic beverage a week and then write a screenplay, and a book,  and a TV spec script, and 100 magazine articles. I’m going to respect myself and my true abilities and come up with one resolution a week. Something small. Something realistic. Maybe even somethings that not only change my life but perhpas will also positively affect the lives of others.

Interestingly enough yesterdays Dr. Phil show was about Making Your Resolutions a Reality.   

Now, I’m not a huge Dr. Phil fan. He can be pompous, self-righteous and sometimes I think he creates drama on his show purely for entertainment value ( yes, I realize drama creates good TV but as a doctor I don’t think it’s very responsible to mess with those in need of help). None the less, occasionally I like Dr. Phil’s “tough love” attitude While perhaps his screaming “you should have read my entire book!” at a poor obese female guest was rather harsh, his tips on achieving resolutions are pretty right on. Specifically the two that go along with my resolution-a-week strategy are:

 So if you are like me and you tend to drop your resolutions come Valentines day, join me and create one resolution-a-week. Make ‘em small and specific and by the time 2009 rolls around we’ll have made 52 small changes! I’ll be posting my weekly resolutions here along with links related to those resolutions/topics. I invite you to post yours in the comments. Creating a support network will help make our goals easier to achieve as well.

So let me get started. My resolution for this week is to stop saying “I’m starving!” when in reality I’m just kinda hungry. It may sound like a silly resolution but every time  I say it I feel like a jerk. It’s an over dramatic phrase and it’s insensitive to those who are actually starving in this world. Instead of crying out about how painfully hungry I am, I’m going to visit www.thehungersite.com where just clicking a button helps feed those whom are really starving.

Happy New Year!