by Emma Willey

Created on: December 27, 2009   Last Updated: December 28, 2009

Are New Year's Resolutions Worth Making?

My answer to that question is "Yes".  That is, if the reason for the resolution is important to you.  I have made resolutions year after year though, only to be broken.  But finally in 1980 I mode a resolution important enough to me to keep.   After suffering a heart attack, I decided I had to quit smoking.

Up to that time, I had tried unsuccessfully many times to throw away my cigarettes.  But when an addiction takes a hold on your life, it's a hard one to break.  I ignored the warning signs, when I saw No Smoking signs,  I lit up anyway.  When my husband quit, I continued the bad habit.  And even when my three year old grandson said, "Grandma, you shouldn't smoke", even that didn't motivate me to throw them away.   They ruled my life, I couldn't go to church because I would have to wait a whole hour to light up.   I smoked in the car with my little children.  It made me mad when my friends put a sign in thei r living room, No Smoking.  That didn't help either.  But finally after I had the heart attack, I decoded I had no choice but to quit if I wanted to continue living.

That resolution I made thirty years ago stuck with me, so I guess you could say it was an important resolution and one worth keeping.  At least it was for me. Instead of smoking, I started writing.  I wrote my memoirs and got them published.  I started a needlecraft business where I had many of my projects published.  I accomplished a lot since I quit smoking, things I wouldn't have had time for because I was too busy satisfying my cravings for nicotine. With decimation and hard work,  I quit in 18 days, and have never had a cigarette since the end of the eighteenth day.  I have never been sorry, because I was tired of being a slave to something so trivial as a cigarette.

It has been thirty years since I lit a cigarette and I am so happy I kept that resolution.  So, of course my answer to the question is definitely, Yes, New Year's Resolutions are worth making.

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