New Year’s Day is the real Groundhog Day.  Will it be more of the same or something new this year?

Using your tax dollars, someone in the U.S. Government has the job of researching and publishing the most popular New Years Resolutions each year.

http://www.usa.gov/Citizen/Topics/New-Years-Resolutions.shtml

Here is a few from the list and a some thoughts to accompany:

Manage Debt and Save Money…or not.  The formula is simple and incredibly hard. Don’t spend more that you make.  Be intentional.  Money will move and you either tell it where to go or it goes nowhere.

Take a trip…or not.  Decide if you are going to spend your extra money on things or experiences.  Spend money on vacations, eating out or buying toys.  The result is the same.  You have stuff or the memory, but the money is gone.  Both are OK.  Be intentional. If you don’t make choices between experiences and stuff, you wont have the money to do either.

Lose weight…or not.  The odds are that you won’t loose a whole Back Street Boy worth of weight and end up on an infomercial.  But if you eat a little better, you might feel a little more in control.  Drink more water and take your lunch to work and that will get you some of the way there.  Be intentional.  Unless you are genetically gifted, better food choices are the only thing standing between you and the big and tall department.

Get fit…or not.  Set a goal to do something that makes you feel physically alive.  Try something that scares you like running a half-marathon or climbing a mountain.  Find some focus besides the simple confines of what you have to do every day.  Be intentional.  Big fitness goals don’t magically happen just because you bought new shoes.

Get a better education…or not.  Read 10 new books.  Finish some schooling.  Learn upside-down Egyptian pottery.  Start writing an annoying blog.  Push through your mental barriers somehow. Be intentional.  You wont expand your mind by looking a funny dog videos on Facebook all year.

Get a better job…or not.  If you change jobs, you are exchanging one set of problems for a new set of problems. That may be OK, but your problems don’t go away.  Don’t leave you career to chance. Have integrity, produce something valuable and love your customers.  You will have opportunity.  Be intentional.  You will end up manning the radar station in Alaska if don’t work “on” your career situation.

You get the picture.  You pick.  Will it be more of the same or something different this year?  You can either make a goal or you can not make a goal.  Either way, something is going to happen to you in each one of these areas in 2015.