Resolutions

Do we ever keep our New Years Resolutions? How many of us actually think about our resolutions? I would think that most think about it the first few weeks, and then either a) give up, or b) it becomes more of a habit so they quit constantly thinking about it.



As an Aries, I love to make goals and lists. I just wanted to follow up on my New Year's Resolution for 2010. What was my one resolution? To be more confident.



This encompases many different areas of my life, but I focused mainly on 2 areas:

• More confident at work in my professional abilities


• More confident with my self-image

Well, for the first one, I have made good improvement at work and I still have a long way to go. I applied for a promotion at the beginning of the year and got it! I felt great to see that my 18 mos had paid off and that management saw my potential. My new position requires a lot more responsibility and a lot more interaction with internal departments. I'm dealing with warranty issues, which is an incredibly stressful area because as a company, we pride ourselves with quality above anything else. It is highly emotionally charged from our customer's sides too because they are rushing to finish installations and often get charged penalties upward of $10,000 a day if they install late. Needless to say, this job entails much better stress management. I also am continuing to improve critical thinking skills. Before, at the bottom on the corporate ladder, I often felt that I was just transfering information and delivering news. Now I feel that what communication I offer are my ideas, not just passing information from one department to the next.

Well the next area, self-image, is something I think a lot of people struggle with, but are embarassed to talk about it. I know that sometimes I get upset with myself, I mean I'm a 25 yr woman, in a steady relationship, with a good job, why would I ever feel down on myself? I have never been one to have a consistent exercise regime (except in high school when I took dance classes), so along with the extra stress at work I started going to the gym in the mornings. I honestly didn't think I would be able to do it for very long, getting up at 5am and working out before the day begins. I mean, before then I would sleep in for as long as possible just to squeeze in enough time to shower, pull my hair in a bun and grab a frozen dinner to take for lunch.

But as each day went by, I felt good about myself for even getting up, and then little by little, I just built on that. My confidence grew just in the mere fact that I was actually sticking to a schedule! I have made huge improvements in endurance and strength. Before I started working out contstantly I was pathetically huffing like a rhinocerous by the first 1/2 mile. Seriously pathetic. Now, I wouldn't say that I enjoy running but I can get through 2 miles easily, which is QUITE an improvement. Plus I have noticed way more tone and definition and that translates to confidence to put on a bathing suit for my Hawaii trip on Friday!