Micro Resolutions

With the rapid growth of twitter, 2008 was the year the world went micro. We should learn from that development. Rather than picking an unreasonable New Year's Resolution that you will fail at anyway, why not make 2009 the year you pursue micro improvements?

As an example, one of my good friends likes to test himself with small challenges. For the first week of each month he eschews meat and fish for a vegetarian diet. He's young and healthy, but he likes to know that he can do something like this. One month he went without any alcohol.

So rather than digging out your old exercise equipment and vowing that this will finally be the year you get back in shape, why not pursue something easier that you are more likely to stay with?

Vow that for the first week on each month you will give up red meat, or go for long walks. If you've always wanted to read War and Peace, break it up into workable slices. Only read 15 pages a day. You might find that when you put the book down, just as things are getting interesting, you will be that much more likely to want to pick it up and read it again.

Trying to radically change your life won't work. Instead do something small that will lead to other changes. The reality is that you are probably pretty happy with the way you live your life and randomly deciding one day that you are suddenly going to lose 25 lbs just isn't going to work.

So pick something small, say one week without soda each month or one week of packed lunches, and don't worry so much about perfecting yourself. Best wishes for the new year.