Well this is it, 2009 before we could even catch our breaths, everything's back to normal.

Have you made any resolutions? I have, but not because I think that one year turning into another will make it any different, just that it does provide a good excuse to try harder at those things you promised yourself over the last year you would try to do. Some of those I did, but many others kept being put off and off again.

Many people will recognise that true change is usually forced upon us human beings. We are creatures of habit and breaking them can be very hard to do. We create and maintain habits of those things that come easy to us even when things around us change. For example, I have now been in my 'new' house for nearly a year. Some of the habits I had in my old house have naturally followed me to my new house, stuff I wanted to change but now have become ingrained again.

According to many scientists, it takes 21 days to break a habit, yes, only 21 days! But if you need to keep something up every day for 21 days, you will know just how difficult it is to do this unless…. there is some sort of reward. Another example, during the winter months, I have a high temperature and high pressure shower. However, my young son follows me into the shower in the mornings and the first day I switched over, I worried that he may step into the shower without checking the settings. Automatically after taking a shower, I revert the settings. This change I did immediately and now nearly four weeks later - even with a one week break in between - I do this without thinking. My motivation, a natural instinct, is ensuring that my son is safe.

So what is worth spending time making yourself miserable for? Normally change that is good for you hurts - see my gym related posts! What could be worth all this trouble, after all, we are all going to die sooner or later, why worry? Well, what is comfortable does not necessarily make you happy. Smoking, overweight and addiction as well as many others are habits that are easy to maintain but do nothing for your well being.

My 'new year' resolutions are about fixing those things that need to be to achieve some semblance of balance in the four aspects of human contentment - the physical, the mental, the emotional and the spiritual. Because if I can't be content, why else am I here?

May you find the balance.

[First published on my Talking2Myself blog on specified date]