By Judy Seifert (Contact / Staff Bio)
December 27, 2008 - 01:36 p.m. EST

I’m thinking about New Year’s resolutions and what a waste of time they are.

I’ve never met anyone who kept their resolution. Not one. But if you’re out there, I would love to hear from you.

From my inner circle of family members and friends I’ve heard the same resolutions over the course of many years.

The resolutions are: quit smoking, quit drinking, quit going to the casino, lose weight, start getting healthy, start saving money.

Of all who made these resolutions, none has been entirely successful - including myself.

I resolve every January to lose weight and resume my daily walking routine. But when the weather is lousy outside, my primordial instinct is to stay inside and keep warm.

So, the one mile of walking every day gets set aside. By spring, when the shorts come out, I’m regretting that I didn’t get off the sofa in January, February, March and April.

My mother-in-law quit smoking this year, and that’s a good thing. It wasn’t because she made a resolution, it’s simply because she got sick and couldn’t smoke.

She also (and she’s going to hate me for saying this) hasn’t stopped going to the casino. She’s reduced the number of trips significantly and now takes her husband with her so he can’t complain, but that resolution, made many years ago, has to be considered a bust.

Quitting drinking was easy for me. I got tired of throwing up. Haven’t had an alcoholic beverage in about 20 years now so that resolution resolved itself.

Saving money. Might as well not even bother with that one.

Getting healthy is a more obtainable, more realistic resolution. One has only to substitute a bottle of water for a can of soda pop once a day to be able to say with pride, "I’m getting healthy!"

One small step leads to another.

So, instead of making a resolution this year, maybe it’s better to just take one step forward towards resolving a problem we really want resolved.

Despite the snow, I’m going to take a walk today. It might only be to the corner of my street and back, but it’s a step in the right direction, right?

That’s it for me this week. Bye.