An Agent's View: New Years Resolutions

Literary Agent Michelle Grajkowski of Three Seas Literary agency weighs in on New Years Resolutions.

After two weeks of too much food and too much fun, I am armed with a list of New Year's resolutions that this year I vow to honor. And, if making a list for myself wasn't enough - I helped my daughter come up with a few of her own. Namely, cleaning her room. The conversation on Monday went something like this:

ME: Clean your room.
Dear Sweet 7-year-old: In a minute, Mommy. I'm playing with my stuffed animals.

Two hours later:
ME: Clean your room.
DSSYO: In a minute, Mommy. I'm playing Barbie on my computer.

Three hours later:
ME: Clean your room.
DSSYO: In a minute, Mommy. I'm finishing my picture.

Then it was time for bed.

So, we had the talk.
ME: Sweetie, have you made a resolution this year?
DSSYO: What is a resolution?
ME: It's when you make a promise to yourself to do something good for you.
DSSYO: Oh.
ME: I think your resolution should be to keep your room clean.
DSSYO: That's a good idea.

Flash forward to January 5. Is her room clean? No, it's better than before, but not clean to my standards. To her, she can see floor, so all is well in the world.

Moral of the story - as nice as it would be to set goals and resolutions for our friends, you can't change someone who doesn't want to be changed. So, rather than to focus on how much nicer life would be if I didn't have to say, "clean your room" twenty-five times a day, I set my own resolution. To help my DSSYO clean her room every night before bed. Then we can both feel satisfaction on a job well done. Plus is will give us some good girl time together to share our days.

Because writing down your goals make them real, here I go.

1) I resolve to exercise every day. There always seems to be an excuse why not to. "My emails are backed up." "I have tooo much to do." You name them, I've come up with them already. So, I found a really cool program on Fit TV which I am becoming addicted to. ALL STAR WORKOUTS is a really cool show what changes up workouts every day - yesterday I was doing pilates, today kickboxing. Later in the week, we move into Belly Dancing. For me, the change of pace is just what I need to keep me interested.

2) I resolve to not sweat the small stuff. (I'm going to leave the sweating to my workouts!) Running my own business has turned me into a type A personality. I am not happy until everyone around me is. So, I've worked my booty off to make sure that everything is perfect. That my house is clean, that everything around me is just as it should be. While I am still going to strive for perfection, if my house is a little out of place before I'm going to go to bed, I'm going to let it go. And, if my 2005 Christmas cards have suddenly become Happy 2006 New Year's cards this year, well...

3) I hereby resolve to catch-up on emails. This will probably be my trickiest yet - I receive literally over 100 emails a day. So, keeping up with them can be a challenge. But, I resolve to block out time each day to answer them. Feeling caught up will be a huge stress relief!

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and that 2006 brings you all that you wish for. Good luck with your resolutions! I would love to hear what they are, so, please post away!!

Me, I'm off to write some emails!

Until next week,
Michelle

posted by Stephanie Rowe @ 10:36 AM