Why do we tourture ourselves by making New Year's Resolutions

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As another year is coming to an end its time to look back at the goals I set for myself this time last year:
Knitting: learn intarsia (NOPE didn’t even think about picking a project with this technique
Personal: Take an adult swimming class. Ha…in my blog post I said I was signing up to take a class “this month”, whatever happened to that idea? I never signed up and then had a baby in April. Never happened.
Professional: get my board certification in Feeding and Swallowing disorders. Nope, this one didn’t happen either. Again, I had a baby, took 4 months of maternity leave and then had zero motivation to work toward this once coming back from leave.

Well, that was a waste of a year. No, not exactly. 2011 was a GREAT year for our family! We enjoyed making our new house a home, welcomed our second child into the world, watched Xander grow into a smart and energetic toddler, spent four months together as a family with no work obligations (not so great for finances), celebrated countless birthdays with friends, enjoyed family visits to New England, knit a LOT of yards of yarn, traveled to Oklahoma for football, and had lots of good times with friends. And those are just the highlights!! My goals may not have been met but I certainly feel content as a mommy and wife.

Even though I didn’t reach any of my goals last year, it just doesn’t seem like New Year’s if I don’t put some new goals into my mind. Yes, I’m a creature of habit. I like to think of them as goals not resolutions. As I was searching through various news stories about New Year’s resolutions before doing this post I came across one that quoted Gretchen Rubin from the best-selling book “The Happiness Project”. I have heard about this book on a few podcasts I listen to and of course Oprah. The quote is “You hit a goal, you achieve a goal. You keep a resolution.”. So here they are…my goals for 2012.
Personal: Take an Intro to Adult Swim class (no excuses this year), keep a gratitude journal, learn to take better pictures (Starting my intro to photography class in February!!!), stay on top of backing up our photos and videos
Marriage: Date night at least once a month (It has been way too long since we last went out!)
Parenting: Enroll both of the boys in swim classes (there is a class right after the class I need to sign up for, so timing would be perfect), teach X how to ride his tricycle, get into more of a routine with X for potty training, enjoy the rest of Noah’s first year of life and make him a first year book

My goals grew from last year but they are all very attainable! I can’t wait to start!