Kardon

New Year’s Resolutions All Year Long [Christine]

By: Christine Lulewicz

After the Holidays have been celebrated and we return to our normal, everyday lives, some people have a tradition where they find areas of improvement in their lives and make promises to change them in the New Year. They are called “New Year’s Resolutions”.

New Year’s resolutions are made in many areas of our lives, ranging from how we handle our responsibilities to our relationships with others.  When someone sticks to their resolutions and works hard at them, they can experience many benefits.

However, many people find it hard to keep a new year’s resolution over time and often abandon the idea altogether. Some lack the confidence or the motivation to achieve it while others find their goal to be too hard and “unrealistic”.

Over the years, I have participated in this tradition as well. But recently, I have learned that effective resolutions can be made any time of the year.

Working hard with my Music Therapists here at Kardon, I know how supportive they are of me and my work in music. As I play my instruments and sing, they listen and critique my work. Sometimes I don’t realize that I’ve made a mistake until they point it out. This leads me to my resolution.

At first, I thought that making mistakes made me a failure. With my therapists’ help, I’ve learned that part of growing as a musician is making mistakes. The way to get better is to acknowledge my mistakes, and admit that making mistakes does not make me a failure. Only then can I learn how to become a better musician.

My resolution is to become a better musician by working hard at correcting my mistakes without getting discouraged by them. I have been working hard on this with my Therapists. It has really made me more aware of myself and my growth as a musician. This is most definitely a resolution worth keeping and working on all the time.

I believe that every one of us, regardless of ability, can find areas of improvement within ourselves all year round. It’s up to us to decide what our growth areas are and how to address them.

Finding areas of improvement can open up many possibilities for all of us. Not only can they help us become more aware of ourselves in our everyday lives, but they allow us to grow and become the best people we can be.

Through my experiences, I would like to pass on some advice to my peers who may be looking to make a resolution to improve themselves:

The first step is to look within your heart and mind to find out what area in your life you wish to improve. There are many ways that one can go about working on the resolution once it is established.

One way that I have found helpful is to look to others for help and support. Let them know you want to stick to your resolution and achieve it. Ask for friends and family to remind you of your goals and to work with you on them when appropriate to improve your motivation.

Most of all, never give up on yourself. Keeping a resolution is hard, but you have the power to overcome this difficulty and make positive changes in your life.

A new year may be upon us, but resolutions to improve ourselves are not limited to that time. We can make them any time of the year and live our lives in great fulfillment.

Editor’s note: The past few months of material on Kardon Institute for Arts Therapy’s blog has been generated by our clients, who use this as an outlet to express their ideas, struggles, and success stories. We hope to continue this blog series throughout 2012. If you’d like to get involved as a guest blogger, please contact kcox@kardoninstitute.org.