New Years Resolutions, or lack thereof

I have yet to reach new years resolution nirvana. I absolutely love the idea of new year's resolutions. I love the feeling of starting over, of becoming better, of making new goals and spending time reflecting on where you are and where you'd like to be. Plus I'm a certifiably insane list-maker, so anything that involves bullet points, categories, and color coordination is right up my alley. I wish I were joking about the color-coordination.

But, like everyone else in the world, it's sticking to my list of resolutions that's hard for me.

If it helps, I know what doesn't work. I've tried the old fashioned way of making a list (An exact number of pounds lost! An exact number of books read! An exact number of blog pageviews!). That works really well for about three weeks, and then the reality of trying to become a perfect person gets to me and I have one bad day, and then I promptly forget about my list for the rest of the year.

I've also tried the vague but semi-inspirational new year's resolutions. Do you know what I'm talking about? Less processed, more natural. Less negative, more positive. Less online, more face to face. Make love, not war. Failure is a bruise, not a tattoo. I could go on, but you get the point. Basically the day after you make that list, you look at it and think "uhhhhhh. So what am I doing exactly?"

I've also tried having an overall motto for the year. You know, where you pick one word and that guides all your actions for the year. FAITH. COURAGE. FOCUS. Maybe I didn't pick the right word last year, or maybe I didn't have enough visual reminders of it, but that one didn't really work for me either.

So this year, I'm trying something new. Monthly goals. But here's the thing. I'm setting two or three small goals each month. And I'm going to make the goals at the beginning of each month, not all at once right now. I think it's weird to decide in January what you'll accomplish this November. Who knows what I'll be up to in November!

Hopefully this will finally be what works for me. I have a good feeling about my new system. I wrote down a few thoughtful goals for January today. They're hard, but by no means unattainable. I'm ready to do this.

I want to hear from you!

How do you make new year's resolutions?

Does it work for you?

Magic tips and tricks?