It’s the New Year.  A time to get all those resolutions you put on paper into motion!  Some popular ones are:

• getting back into shape (or start) after over a month of indulging
• putting a stop to destructive behavior or less-than-helpful habits
• organizing/re-organizing your life
• learning something new
• upgrading your view on life
• making your priorities…well, priorities

I think some of us love the idea of a New Year because it’s as if our slate is wiped clean, it’s a fresh start–the whole year is ahead of us, bursting with possibilities.  I think some of us overachievers dread it because we’re planning to do a re-modeling project on every aspect of our lives…all at once.  I used to belong to both parties, but this year, I’m affiliated with only one.  And that’s the one that’s psyched for 2010!  Why no anxiety?  Because I have a different strategy, which is to do a little work on myself at a time, but do it continually throughout the year.  Kind of like cleaning your house a smidge every day–a counter here, a sink there–instead of having to spend a whole, overwhelming day trying to summon your inner Mr. Clean when it gets unbearably disgusting.

Maybe another resolution to add to our lists is being kind to ourselves (not to be confused with easy on ourselves).  And remember that when we take a step backward, it’s just that–one step–and it only takes a tiny step forward to get us walking (or possibly skipping?) in the right direction.  I’m going to think of this quote by Robert Brault when things aren’t flowing the way I’d hoped:  Optimist: someone who figures that taking a step backward after taking a step forward is not a disaster, it’s a cha-cha. And who doesn’t enjoy a good cha-cha?!

Here are some more quotes I’m loving for their thought-provoking and motivating messages.  I hope they inspire you to joyfully and courageously march into this New Year!

For last year’s words belong to last year’s language and next year’s words await another voice.

~Little Gidding II, T.S. Eliot

The object of a new year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul.

~G.K. Chesterton

To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly.

~Henri Bergson

Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.

~Barack Obama

For the human mind is seldom at stay:  If you do not grow better, you will most undoubtedly grow worse.

~Samuel Richardson

Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.

~James Baldwin

In times of change, learners inherit the Earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.

~Eric Hoffer

I am always doing that which I can not do, in order that I may learn how to do it.

~Pablo Picasso

It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows.

~Epictetus

Success will never be a big step in the future, success is a small step taken just now.

~Jonatan Mårtensson

Contemplation often makes life miserable.  We should act more, think less, and stop watching ourselves live.

~Nicolas de Chamfort

Great ones, right?  Feel free to share any quotes that are inspiring you right now or what you are hoping to accomplish in 2010.  I’ll be doing the same in future posts.  Let’s rock this New Year, shall we?!