Do you have a resolution for the new year: 2016?

I am not really a resolution maker because I know I am a resolution breaker.  But I do feel that I should start off the year with one thought and that is to start better.

I used to work as a skin care and beauty consultant for Estee Lauder’s Clinique brand.  During my employ they began a campaign called #StartBetter.  The training class I attended kicked off with the sentence:  “When was the last time you did something for the first time?”

A thought provoking question for many, it had me sitting there thinking and I really didn’t listen to the next 5 minutes of the class.  What a powerful question.

When was the last time I did something for the first time?  I have done some new-ish activities since moving to Oxford MS: workshops on gardening at the local public library, opened an Etsy store to sell some jewelry that I was making at home. Other than that nothing was really for the first time because I’ve talked about gardening in other places, sold things I’ve made before and had moved to a new town in the past.  I thought and thought that day and simply related things to my current job and current environment: family and location.  I vowed that I should work harder to help women with skin care concerns but that wasn’t something new and for the first time.  My job with Clinique wasn’t really new because I had been a skin care and beauty consultant in the 1990s before taking a break to raise children.  I really could not think of anything that I had done recently for the first time.

After much thought and discussion with my husband, I decided that my new first thing would be a new career. I would return to school and get my real estate license.  I achieved this by the end of 2014 and began a new career journey.  I manage my own business, my own income and all of the responsibilities that come with it.  But in addition to this I still do my other things: run my Etsy store, write my blogs, occasionally draw, hold gardening workshops at the local library and hang out with my family.

But it is now 2016 and I ponder, again, the idea of starting something for the first time.  Clinique’s video asks us to fill in the blank: “I will start _______”.  They want us to Start Better.

There are a few ongoing projects that I plan to complete in 2016 but otherwise, for 2016, I want to take what I’ve started and be better at it. I want to be a better listener; a better business professional; a better mom, wife, daughter, sister, pet owner, friend; a better contributor to my community.

So my resolution is not so much a resolution but an idea that I want to improve myself.  January 1, 2016 and every day thereafter that I awake, I want to start better; start better than I did the day before.  A daunting task since I am just human and have off days, but I can say that with this desire to start better, I can end the year better.  And in doing so I may just do something for the first time and do the things I like to do more often.

What about you?