Every year at this time I purge closets, reorganize and rethink the arrangement of furniture in our home. It's as much of a symbolic gesture as it is a physical one. Releasing what is old and no longer functional and putting things in an order that will suit a growing family (in stature and maturity, not in number, thank you very much) must be done. Otherwise we become weighed down with jackets too tight at the shoulders, jeans too short at the ankles (or too narrow at the waist, thanks Christmas cookies) and dusty old papers that no one has picked up during the course of the year. Sometimes it's that way with resolutions. We make them thinking we know what will be best for us but eventually they just don't fit.
The ending of one year and the anticipation of the coming year always feels like that fresh spiral notebook. I strategically plan with anticipation events that will pass and actions I will take in the next twelve months. Last year, after a hectic season of shooting I vowed that I would spend more time with my family. I was good for a while and then became completely consumed with making my business bigger and better. In October, I realized that my bigger and better business wasn't making money and was causing far more strain in my home than it was ever worth. Sometimes passion and doing something well just won't pay the bills. I went back to working a 9 to 5 job and I haven't looked back.
There is nothing wrong with being a "resolutioner" and I hate that people have tagged some ugly stigma to it. Frankly, after the holidays when no one is in a routine, it's nice to use the disruption to change habits. Eat better, work out, blog more (who said that?!), work more or less, make more time for your family or deciding that you will throw all of that out the window if it just isn't possible. That's the magic of a resolution. Sometimes it just doesn't work. And that's okay. The point is not "new year, new you" but "new year, better you."
