Warrior Worthy New Year's Resolutions

     New Year’s are a magical time, the promise of a fresh start, and the opportunity to recreate ourselves and leave the bad habits of last year behind. I mean who doesn’t love the hope of new beginnings? Parents are especially fond of the idea. We like to dream of our children being more respectful, kinder, or more responsible in their day to day lives. As parent’s, we look at how short childhood is and vow to make it our priority to be more present with our kids this year, or to be more patient, and more focused on giving them more quality time and attention. 

      After all, this year’s going to be different! We can just feel it! However big our wishes or desires, without a plan it truly is just a dream. A mere fantasy step towards realizing the goals we want. Change is difficult. And lasting change is even more so. Without the conscious minute to minute, day to day exercise of our determination and will to succeed our resolutions will begin to fizzle and fuzz out as our good intentions weaken in the face of all the work it will takes to succeed and overcome the obstacles in our way. And before February has truly had the chance to come make its mark, our good intentions are bottled up and stored away until the promise of a new beginning kindles that passionate hope once more.

      Here at Warrior’s Way we believe that goals are crushed one tiny step in the right direction at a time. Sometimes those little steps are like striking gold with your Warrior. We make a seemingly insignificant change to our daily routine, an adjustment in how we discipline our child, or a more conscious effort in how we communicate with our family. Surprisingly that change seems to work. That tiny step begins truly improving our family life and this small change sticks around far longer than we thought possible. These small changes cascade towards a more positive home environment. The hard part is to take that first step and then stick with it.

      As a family unit, our goals shouldn’t solely be focused on just us, but also a joint effort that we are all working towards. So as you gather your families about you to ring in the New Year try to get everyone involved in the resolution process. The linked article has some really great family resolutions that we at the Way have all been working on in our own homes (especially the first three, such easy small focus changes). In addition we would like to encourage having dinner as a family at least once a week and making your family dinner time an electronic free zone.

      We know that good parents, even Black Belt level ones, aren’t perfect. And that is totally okay. There is no secret formula for us to follow, but there are way simple ways we can grow with our family every day. So commit to changing together this year no matter how big or small. After all, it’s the journey not the destination that makes this misadventure of parenting so grand. Whether your resolutions become new habits or are total flops, the best part is that you’re doing it together and daily trying to make each other better. So enjoy the little things this winter break, try a new habit or focus in your home this New Year’s, and we’ll be here… on your team and at your back when we get back in 2024.

We hope you have the best of New Year’s Warriors! 

We'll see you on the mat in January

  

#RaiseAWarrior