#ResolutionADay 2024 – Day 15

I’ve made it to Day-15 of my #ResolutionADay. This idea is where, each day, I add a New Year’s Resolution to my year. These things are all not life-altering, but are a collection of small things that will add up to a great year.

I’m also not promising myself 100% compliance, but I am tracking my percentage success rate. Because I like math and I think I can make a Spreadsheet full of formulas that can easily track everything and my success rate.

And because perfection is the enemy of the good.

New Years Resolutions are good. Making a little bit of improvement daily is good. If you or I have a bad habit, or we want to start something that makes our life better, and we do either thing 50%  of the year (182 days), isn’t that better than giving up completely?

Look at my list at the 15-day mark…

Some of these seem easy, right? Some are so easy they take less than 5 seconds. Some aren’t even things I need to do every day. And unlike past years, I’m not tying success or failure to 100% achievement. 

As an example, I’m 50 years old and I don’t even remember all the New Year’s Resolutions I’ve made over the years except for a few. One in particular, when my kids were little and my wife was doing EVERYTHING (cooking, cleaning, keeping school schedules in order, working, shopping, etc) I thought, hmmmmm, what’s something I can do? So I decided, after reading an article about colds and allergies, that every Sunday I would strip the beds, wash the sheets, and make the beds. I’m not saying that made me a hero and that overnight my wife’s life became a walk in the park, but this was one chore I knew would help and had health benefits. Amid the many resolutions and new-leaves I’d turned over, this Strip/Wash/Make the Beds became a habit that I don’t miss. Ever.

I fully believe it’s cut down on the amount of colds my kids have. I’m a bit of a germaphobe, so when I think of bedding and that we all spend 7+ hours each night and 49+ hours a week sleeping in them, often without showering before climbing in bed …well, yes. Sheets need to be cleaned. And I also do this every Sunday so it has the added benefit of adding a small moment of joy in the final hours of a weekend when everyone is dreading that, when they wake up, it will be Monday and the workweek and school week start again. Every person in my family, at least once, has said how much they look forward to crawling into bed on Sunday night because the sheets are so clean and smell so fresh.

I give a little joy. I feel a little joy. 

So, if I commit to a new resolution every day throughout 2024 and a few of them become 100% habits that last day in, day out, week in, week out, and go on for years and make my life better, that will be a great thing.

My 100% successes so far are:

• Read a Min. of 15-Minutes Per Day
• Drink 3/4-Gallon (1 1/2 of my new water bottle) Water Per Day
• Tell Kathy I Love Her and Give Her a Kiss
• Do a 15-Minute Chore Each Day

I’m excited about that 15-Minute Chore. I think about the time I spend sorta doing nothing each evening so I’m starting with, right after dinner, doing a chore right then. So far, in 3 days, I’ve dusted 2 windows of blinds on day-1, I wiped down my desk, dusted, and organized it, and then day-3 I took a dust mop and dusted under every piece of furniture in 3 rooms. Quick. Simple. And I’m amazed at how much I can actually accomplish in just 15-Minutes. If you pick a project or two and focus, nothing really takes all that long. If I dust the blinds with my 15-Minute Daily Chore, at a rate of 2 windows each day, in a week I’ll have dusted all the blinds in my entire house. If I pick one little corner and dust and vacuum and straighten a few things and put a few things away, I can hit my entire house in about 6 nights.

What a great habit that would be if I’m still doing it 10 years from now. Even if at a 75% success rate. 

It’s the 15th. The middle of Month-1. I’ll be updating this all year to keep myself on track and make ResolutionADay perfect.