I could never get those New Year’s resolutions ready for the New Year’s Eve. Preparing for the celebration, buying presents for everybody, planning the dinner, getting together with family and friends make a person busy enough. I was always struggling to plan this one day, December 31st, ahead – not to mention planning my whole year at the last moment.

Any long term decisions (and 365 days are long enough term for me) made in a rush are a bad idea. So I am starting a new tradition – replacing the New Year’s resolutions with New Year’s aspirations. And they must be made up in the New Year, after the countdown, the fireworks and the champagne, when I am sober, my vision isn’t blurring and I can think clearly.

Why aspirations, you ask? Good question!

I have considered a number of other words, such as dreams or wishes. “Dreams” isn’t real enough because we all have plenty of dreams we will never fulfill. “Wishes” isn’t committing enough, it’s kind of weak. “Aspirations” has the strength, the commitment and the determination to succeed. Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner – “New Years’ Aspirations” that is.

If you ask me, it makes sense and feels nice to be summarizing the ending year before drawing those used-to-be resolutions. After all, they are called resolutions for a reason, they are supposed to be resolving some problems or issues we had in the past year – so those issues need to be remembered and summarized first, and only then we should think about some improvements to our life.

Concentrating on the resolutions alone, we can easily forget all the good that happened in this past year. We need to remember it, to give ourselves credit and a pat on the back, to feel contented and the proud of this accomplishment, and to keep it up.

Enough said; we’re already living in 2009 and here are my New Year’s aspirations:

I have been working too much. I will devote more time to myself, to my health and well-being than to my job. To be more specific, I will refuse to take more work than I usually do; I will go to at least two concerts this year, pay my doctor a visit and do some check-ups, and start paying more attention to my appearance.

I have been stressing too much. I will try to limit stressful events in my life because nothing is really worth it. I will think ahead, predict as much as possible and avoid stressful situations caused by over-committing and the expectations other people have of me.

I haven’t been physically active enough – I will start doing more sports. I will make sure I walk at least 2 hours a day and do some other regular exercising at least once a week.

I haven’t been spending enough time with my friends – I need to change that and make our relationships stronger. I will call every friend of mine at least once every two weeks.

How about you? What are your New Year’s Aspirations?

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