Resolve to start the New Year without Guilt

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Guilt, as defined by Webster's New World Dictionary is: the fact of doing something wrong or committing an offence. A feeling of self reproach from believing one has done something wrong. Ok, so if you in fact have done something wrong, you should feel some guilt. Interesting point here is that the word guilt falls between the words guillotine and Guinea pig - both of these can also serve to keep us in line.

Over the years the emotion of guilt has served the human race well in modifying our behaviours. This is the time of year when most of the world has one scary thing in common - we all seem to buy into the idea that we all should be feeling some guilt for some reason or other. And if you are not really feeling any guilt well then you should feel guilt that you are not.

Perhaps you missed a person on your Christmas card list, extra guilt if they sent you a card. Or maybe you just couldn't bring yourself to fight those parking lot crowds to get that Monsters Inc. stuffy for one of your kids. You only got 6 dozen cookies baked and ended up buying a 'store made' cheese ball for the party - God forbid! What would "Martha" think?

The Martyr has been around for centuries and I think it is high time we declared an epidemic on this once revered personal characteristic. Mind you it does give you a great training background for your career as a soap star. Who ever said you are only a good person if you give so much of yourself that there is nothing left to drag into your shower every morning. So here is the challenge as we try to accomplish all the New Years Resolutions we have set out for ourselves for the next year.

Find some balance. It's that simple and that hard. You see if you are living YOUR life with some balance in it. And by the way, that is balance how you define it. But if you are working towards some balance in your life, knowing that you have chosen to do so, you will experience very little guilt. This is not Einstein stuff. Moving towards a balanced life is a continuing process. It will change as you, your family, the weather and the moon changes. As you get comfortable getting back to eating less sweets and get back into the norm of the day to day, your boss might throw you a project that you had not expected, you may get transferred, a family member may turn ill. And off we go on the roller coaster again. That's the deal. That's Life.

The good news is, it will all change again. The bad news is, it will all change again. As one of my favourite posters says: "There is No Finish Line." When you think about it, how do we ever have time to feel guilt? But we seem to find the time. So as you put away your decorations, collect the visa bills, fit back into those favourite jeans of yours and get back to Your Normal Life, don't dwell on what you could have, should have or didn't do. Just keep it all in Perspective.