New Year's Resolutions. I'm not too cool to be a cliche

In many ways I choose to adopt alternative outlooks on the world. I like to think I march to the beat of my own drum, a nonconformist at heart. So when it came thinking about New Year's resolutions I turned my nose up at the idea by pure reflex. But I decided to research the whole New Year's Resolution custom to see how long we've been waiting for the turn of the calendar year to make changes in our lives.

The tradition of the New Year's Resolutions goes all the way back to 153 B.C. Janus, a mythical king of early Rome was placed at the head of the calendar. With two faces, Janus could look back on past events and forward to the future. Janus became the ancient symbol for resolutions and many Romans looked for forgiveness from their enemies and also exchanged gifts before the beginning of each year.

The Romans named the first month of the year after Janus, the god of beginnings and the guardian of doors and entrances. He was always depicted with two faces, one on the front of his head and one on the back. Thus he could look backward and forward at the same time. At midnight on December 31, the Romans imagined Janus looking back at the old year and forward to the new. The Romans began a tradition of exchanging gifts on New Year's Eve by giving one another branches from sacred trees for good fortune. Later, nuts or coins imprinted with the god Janus became more common New Year's gifts.

So after reading a brief history of New Year's Resolutions I decided that maybe this tradition has been around for so long for a very good reason. Maybe we all need a day on the calendar to inspire us to reassess our choices. Maybe being a cliche isn't so bad. I went on the radio on Sunday and announced my New Year's Resolutions so that I can be held to them. Arlene Bynon will be checking back with me to see how I'm doing.

Here's the kicker though. We need accountability to keep us on track. Whether that accountability is a partner, a personal trainer, a life coach or a therapist, we all need to lean on each other for support when making changes in our lives.

And goals need to be SMART: Simple, measurable, achievable, realistic and timed.

So here are mine:

1. Sleep 8 hours per night.
2. Limit TV watching to 2 hours per week.
3. Read one business book and one personal book per month.
4. Pattern my thinking on the way to and from work with inspirational lectures and talks on CD.
5. Take my umbilical fat measurement to within normal range in 8 weeks.
6. Strength train 3 x times per week.
7. Eat a min of 5 servings of veggies per day.
8. Limit caffeine intake to one cup per day.
9. Write down my annual and quarterly business and personal goals and then measure them.
10. Schedule one nothing day every two weeks where all I do is read, watch movies and do nothing associated with work.

So if you've set some resolutions for yourself, send them my way and I will keep them on file and check back with you in four weeks to see how you're doing.

Here's a quote from to start 2008 with from Notes from the Universe (www.tut.com to sign up and get a daily inspirational note sent to you).

"The best shortcut of all to the life of your dreams, is knowing that you've already arrived."