Tag Archives: resolutions

The Year of the Horse

Posted on January 30, 2014 | Leave a comment

Today is the start of the Chinese Lunar New Year – the year of the Horse. People born in the year of the Horse are helpful, chatty, humble, energetic and obstinate. My daughter was born in the year of the Horse. Now I was born in the year of the Ox. People born in the year of the Ox are dependable, polite, detail-oriented, patient and stubborn.

I think I am a dependable person. As an accountant I must be detailed-oriented. How else would I be able to keep all those accounting transactions straight. I hope I’m polite and I think my friends would describe me as stubborn. Patient….I don’t know.

I like to read blogs and one blog I read suggested that Ground Hog’s Day be another time when you check in on those New Years resolutions that were made last month. I’m thinking that is a good idea since it is the start if the Chinese New Year. Who doesn’t like a do-over. I certainly do.

I was looking over my January 1 post and I noticed I mentioned resolutions but never put any into words. I noticed the new “in” thing is to have a word of the year. I was torn between two words – love and gratitude. So instead of one word I am going to have two words. Both of these words are to help me grow closer to G-d.

I read a blog about the most courageous resolution for 2014 is taken from 1 Corinthians 14:1 ….Pursue love. Pursue means to “seek after eagerly.” So here the Scriptures that I plan on concentrate on in 2014 .

1 Corinthians 13
John 13-15
I John
Matthew 22
Mark 12
Luke 10
Hebrews 13:1-7

I started reading the book “One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are” by Ann Voskamp. I began to realize that I am not a very thankful person. That I take much of life for granted. I have started my on list of gifts to be more mindful of my blessings.

The Start of 2014

Posted on January 1, 2014 | 1 comment

I love the feeling I get every new year. The feeling of newness. That feeling that I can start over. That is why I love to make New Year’s Resolutions. Do I keep them? No. But every year I feel the need to make them. This year I have some floating in my head that I might share a little later.

What I did want to write about was the start of this day – January 1, 2014. I felt like staying in bed. I even tried to tell myself it is a holiday and I should take it easy. After arguing with myself, I did get up and lifted weights in my upstairs exercise room for about 40 minutes and then when for a 20 minute run/walk. I call it a run/walk because I ran for 15 minutes and cooled down for 5 minutes. I have also been thinking about an exercise schedule for 2014. I am mad at LA Fitness. They discontinued the 5:45 am spinning class, which was my favorite time to go to the gym. It is not as much fun by myself without an instructor telling me what to do.

This morning I decided to have a green smoothie for breakfast. The only problem my smoothie is not very green.

Green Smoothie????

This is what is in my smoothie:

1 cup water
1 small apple
1/2 cup cucumber
1/2 frozen banana
1 cup mixed fruit – blackberries, blueberries and strawberries
2 cups packed tightly of baby spinach
1 Tablespoon lemon juice

Mixed together with my vitamix blender.

I did think it was very yummy!!!

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year today.

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Posted in Holidays, Reflections

Tagged Exercise, green smoothie, New Year, resolutions

My happiness Project

Posted on January 1, 2013 | Leave a comment

I have now spent fifty-five years in resolving; having,from the earliest time almost that I can remember, been forming schemes so a better life. I have done nothing. The need of doing, therefore, is pressing, since the time of doing is short. O GOD, grant me to resolve aright, and to keep my resolutions. Samuel Johnson

I thought this quote sums up my experience of making resolution and then doing nothing to make any headway on them. This year I have decided to do something a little different…I have decided to have a happiness project.

I just finished reading “The Happiness Project” by Gretchen Rubin.

I thought the book was well written. I liked how Gretchen assigned each month with an area to improve upon. She tried new things and ideas. Sometimes they brought about the desired happiness and sometimes they did not.

In the book, Gretchen stated that the key to the success of her experiment was her resolution chart. She also used Benjamin Franklins Chart of 13 Virtues to come up with her resolution chart.

In Gretchen’s experiment, January was the month to work on boosting energy and vitality.

She resolved to:
1. Go to sleep earlier
2. Exercise better
3. Toss, restore, organize
4. Tackle a nagging task
5. Act more energetic

I was wondering about Benjamin Franklin’s Chart. I was able to find a nice PDF file that listed his virtues. The first virtue was temperance. Temperance was to eat not to dullness. Drink not to elation. I thought that this virtue goes well with Gretchen’s list for January.

Here is my list:
1. Go to bed earlier. I have read in many health articles that getting 7-8 hours of sleep is very good for you and can even help with weight loss. Usually, I do go to bed around 11pm and wake up at 5am. I love getting up early so to get at least 7 hours of sleep I will need to be in bed ready to sleep at 10 pm.

2. I exercise pretty regularly. I’m already signed up for a 5k on March 24. I’m not good at strength training. I’m going to try to come up with a consistent exercise program that incorporates more weight training. Also, my eating habits are terrible. I need to come up with some sort of plan to eat healthier.

3. Toss, restore, organize. It is true that chaos can stifle creativity. Here is a picture of my home office. I even have a closet that I call the “dungeon” because ….it is hard to explain.
My office…..

The “dungeon”

There is a lot here that needs to be tossed, restored and organized. This room takes all my energy away.

4. Tackle a nagging task….I’m sure that I have many in my office.

5. Finally, act energetic. Maybe if I act energetic I will be energetic…or at least think I have it.

What is Stressful for Me – Thinking about the Upcoming Tax Season

Posted on January 14, 2012 | Leave a comment

I always like the month of January. I like to make New Year’s Resolutions and I like to think that I can actually keep the resolutions that I make. And I think I have good progress on the resolutions for a couple of weeks. I know, I know a lot of people fall off keeping resolutions after only a few weeks.

It is now time for me to write about my excuse for breaking my resolutions. I can sum it up in two words – Tax Season. Starting in January, my workload starts to increase and I begin to think about how I can do more work during the week. Of course, that means more hours working and less time to exercise, organize, read etc. and there go the resolutions.

This week one of my c0-workers announced that they are going to work for a client of hers as an employee for two days of the week and will only be able to work in our office for three days a week. This co-worker was very nervous when she finally gathered enough courage to tell the boss. This was because we thought the boss would be very mad about this decision. When it was said and done the boss seemed quite pleased. Probably because she saw it as a cost saving move for the firm. I can only see as more work for me; more stress for me.

I have already decided that it was time to maybe start putting in some weekend hours. This means it is starting. The time when work starts to overtake my life. This year I do not want to be consumed with working on tax returns every waking minute of the day. Every year I say this and I fail miserable in trying to keep a balance between work, family and leisure.

I was reading the paper this morning and luckily for me I came across an article on stress.

Stress happens when people perceive that the demands they face exceed the ability to cope. – Sharon Jayson

Well that is what happens during tax season. The demand to complete tax returns accurately and quickly as more and more of them are dropped off to prepare create this unbelievable feeling of not being able to get them done.

So here is the way suggested to manage the stress.

Exercise
Take a break even if it is only 20 minutes
Share feelings with others who you trust and can validate your feelings
Meditate or mindful prayer

Then this morning I started reading some blogs that I like to keep up with. I came across these excerpts of a sermon by John Piper that I think may help me, too.

Tag Archives: resolutions

The Year of the Horse

The Start of 2014

My happiness Project

What is Stressful for Me – Thinking about the Upcoming Tax Season

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