‘R-E-S-P-E-C-T’ the New Year

R-E-S-P-E-C-T
Find out what it means to me
R-E-S-P-E-C-T
Take care, TCB

Oh (sock it to me, sock it to me,
sock it to me, sock it to me)
A little respect (sock it to me, sock it to me,
sock it to me, sock it to me)
Whoa, babe (just a little bit)
A little respect (just a little bit)

Aretha Franklin’s famous song is part of my theme for the new year. It’s my new year’s resolution: Respect.

A few years ago my husband and I decided to keep the resolutions simple. Sure, we always want to lose weight, eat healthy, exercise more, clean our house more often, the list goes on … but with too many resolutions it’s too easy to let them slip away as we move on with the year. With one, simple resolution we realize it is easy to keep.

For the past two years we had the same resolution: “Keep it simple.” When posed with two options, choose the one that is easier to fulfill. This can be interpreted in so many ways, but it really helped us realize that we over analyze so much in our lives. By keeping it simple, we are able to have so much more time in our lives to do the things that really matter. Since we did that resolution for two years in a row, it is pretty much a part of our lives. Now, we’re on to something new.

Respect.

I got the idea this year from Peter Walsh of TLC’s “Clean Sweep” TV show. He is the organization expert that asks his clients if they respect their precious heirlooms that have dust all over them. Every episode of the show, it seems, shows him asking one of the homeowners if he is respecting his items he claims means so much to him. Peter makes his point that if the item is so important, it needs to be respected. (Read my post about how Peter helps a woman with a hoarding problem, from the “Oprah Show.”)

Although our resolution is mainly about respecting our possessions, it really goes so much further. We’ll be asking it of everything we pass this year: our bodies, time, home, others.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T
Find out what it means to me

Aretha Franklin was talking about a man when she sang that famous song, but to me it means a way to find out what truly matters.