I know what you’re thinking. Here goes Megan again with another blog post. Hasn’t written in a while but the new year is here and she’s going to tell us a list of resolutions about working out more, cutting out spending, and whatever other life-changing choices that will last until about the 3rd week of January. Well, you’re wrong!

I do want to do all those things–work out more. I ran the “Monster Dash” in 2013. In fact, 2013 was a great year. I don’t regret any of the experiences I had. But since the Monster Dash I have been doing a lot of dashes to the fridge between commercials of repeats of Everybody Loves Raymond. Gotta get up and keep moving. 

But one thing that I spent too much time doing in 2013 is complaining. It was all in good fun, I told myself. Friends surely thought that my curse-laced rants about being on hold with the student loan people was funny, right? Maybe. But the only way I ended up feeling was unhappy and angry at situations instead of doing anything to solve them. I let my blood pressure rise and instead of accepting things for the way they are, I mulled over how unfair the situation was. 

I have recently been reading “The Happiness Project” by Gretchen Rubin, given to me by a friend in our work book club. One of the author’s rules for life is to “Act the way you want to feel.” Another way of saying “Fake it till you make it.” For her it proved to be extremely effective. To me, this doesn’t mean ignoring your true feelings, but it involves changing your attitude so you can get to a point that you are happier and more satisfied with situations. 

So, my main and most important resolution for 2014 is to act the way I want to feel. I am going to smile when I miss the bus, because there is another one on the way. And I am taking that bus to a job which I am fortunate enough to have. After a touch of what was probably the flu last night, I am going to be thankful for my health, because there are many who are not fortunate enough to have it. I will go out of my way to help others, whether or not it’s convenient for me. I will not grumble and gripe about small trivial things. At least, that’s the plan.

Let’s hope I last before the end of the month.