Monthly Resolutions

    My life revolves around my children.  I generally put myself last on the list, many of us do this.  I spend my time making sure that my kids spend time with their friends, but I forget that it's just as important for me to spend time with friends too.  Lately I have been making better effort at this one.  The last few months I have been really enjoying coffee dates with my friends.  It is the time where I stop being Grace's, Rowan's, Riley's or Elly's Mom, and morph back into Tristan.  It is where I enjoy intelligent conversation with grown ups, and often a good laugh.  It's really important.
    It was at one of these coffee dates a few weeks ago that an amazing idea was planted.  I was out on a coffee date with this really smart woman I know. She is an inspiration.  Against all odds she has made an amazing life for her and her family.  I look at her and feel like I should be taking notes.  On this particular coffee date we sat at the local coffee shop for three hours.  Neither of us could believe how long we had sat.  It was such a nice time that I just lost track of the time.  She was telling me about how she had gone gluten free for a month.  She did not suffer from any gluten allergies, she just thought that she would like to try it.  It was one of her "monthly resolutions".  Back the train up.... MONTHLY RESOLUTIONS!
    Every January many of us make these lofty resolutions.  We have looked at our lives and decided that it's time for a change.  We approach January 1 as a sacred day.  On that sacred day we are going to change our lives for the better... forever.  Some of us do better, some of us never get beyond the making a resolution stage.  Honestly the resolution in and of itself is a great thing.  I think that we need to take a look at our lives every so often and really analyze them.  How can I be a better me?  What would make my life better?  All too often when we cannot achieve our resolutions we view ourselves as failures, instead of brave for wanting to make a change. But what if you don't need to look at a resolution as forever?  It's more like a test drive.
    Can you imagine the personal growth that you could achieve if once a month you gave your life a once over?  A month is just a little period of time, an achievable length of time.  Imagine further if you set weekly resolutions for yourself?  If you told yourself that for one week you would swear off sugar, or caffeine, or some other thing that you really want to kick.  One week is something that I can commit to.
    I am going to attempt to commit myself to weekly resolutions.  They don't need to be change the world worthy.  Maybe I will vow that for one week I will commit to 7 hours of exercise.  Yes, this week I will commit myself to 7 hours of exercise... wish me luck.