A new year ...

is going to start soon! And with the year comes a chance to turn over a new leaf, set goals and resolutions, change our lives and make the upcoming year be the BEST ONE EVER.

Right, well, isn't that what all the chatter is starting December 26th usually? And Oprah does shows about how this is your year. And so do about one million other television stations.

But, well, I SO want 2009 and to really and truly be my year! For a while now - since summer, I have known things around my house needed to change. And oh how I said things were going to change. Look over to the right and you can see my operation purge. We started out with a bang, but we've stopped. We didn't reach our goal. It hasn't been for lack of desire. In fact, 2 weeks ago I actually called a few personal organizers to get quotes for having them come help me get things in order (they are all out of my budget). So last week I checked out a huge book about how to organize pretty much everything.

And I immediately did what I always do and made the same old list: get rid of clutter, don't stay up so late, stop drinking so much pop. Which so far has gotten me nowhere. And then it hit me. I'm approaching this all wrong.

I need to stop thinking about what I don't want and focus on what I do want.

Because if I know what I want, then I have a direction and a goal and a clear picture in my head. Let's take the clutter example. I don't want clutter. But, in truth, clutter is subjective. But if I say, for instance, I only want enough fabric that will fit on that shelf, well, then I know how much to get rid of - everything that won't fit!

Now this felt like a major epiphany for me. Changing the goals from what I don't want to what I do want feels really good already. I just hope I can keep this feeling to accomplish all the goals I have set for myself for 2009!