Happy Birthday (to me)!

When it comes to New Year's resolutions, I find that I'm always a little late on coming up with anything. I never really give it any thought until someone inevitably asks me on New Year's Eve what I've resolved to do this year. What improvements I'll make, what nasty habits I'll swear off, what I'll vow to do with religious devotion. I usually shrug and think 'oh yeah.... new year's resolutions' with wonder and frankly, at a complete loss as to what to wish for. Instead, I save them for my January birthday, by now I've had a couple of weeks to think things through and the post-holiday depression is usually beginning to wane at this point and my motivation to get out of bed in the morning is slowly returning.

I read in the Guardian around Christmas time that men and women require different strategies in order to keep their resolutions. Men, of course, should write them down, measure themselves against bite-size, but concrete targets that are easily achievable, make charts and graphs following their progress visually, thus encouraging them to continue down the path of improvement. Women, on the other hand, react most strongly to shame and embarrassment. What am I on about? It said that women should tell friends and family about their resolutions and in doing so it should motivate them not to want to suffer the disesteem of failing to follow through with them. Though avoiding embarrassment is the primary incentive here, the support and encouragement offered by others will hopefully be of some benefit as well.

I choose to go down both roads, never being the traditionally feminine type anyhow. I've made some charts and graphs, and now I'm telling all of you about my birthday resolutions.... They're simple really, and rather standard ones. Firstly, there's the getting fit. I've set myself the achievable, petite targets; exercise 3 1/2 hours a week, lose 5lbs a month, plan healthy meals and snacks. Easy peasy. Then there's the financial stability resolution - that's a new one for me. I've made myself a budget (with a little graph!) with an aim to pay off my credit card debt (over the next two years!) and save up for a trip home to Seattle this summer for my friend's wedding. I've never tried this financial responsibility thing before, so fingers crossed that I can avoid the yarn and fabric shop over-indulgence. Finally, there's the be a better friend resolution. I have the worst habit of never replying to text messages, e-mails, phone calls and even scrabulous on facebook. My new mantra will be reply, reply, reply.

And that's that. Happy Birthday!