Happy New Month!

In a previous job, I had a coworker who was a New Year's resolution fanatic. Every January for as long as I knew her, she resolved to stop smoking, stop drinking, eat healthier, and exercise more. Not only did she resolve to make these changes, but she stuck with them. Until February.

I'm no stranger to this goal-setting strategy. It feels so good to make such large changes all it once, but, for most people, it rarely sticks. So, in 2012, I started my own little alternative to New Year's Day and instead started New Month's resolutions.

My first goal was to treat my nails and cuticles a bit nicer. This has been a goal of mine for over a decade. I've put bandages on 2 fingers at a time so that they'd be less tempting to pick at until they healed. I've given up 2 fingers at a time. In college I had friends nag me every time I picked. This was the least successful. I ended up just getting angry with one friend and told her she'd better stop for the sake of our friendship. It's a habit that drove Craig nuts. He even warned me, before I met his parents for the first time, that his mother worked in HR and used the appearance of applicants' nails as an indicator of how well they took care of themselves. This warning inevitably made me more nervous about the upcoming meeting and you can guess what that nervousness led to (don't worry, the first meeting went fabulously. I am among the proud few who get to say her in-laws are wonderful). I've failed so many times at this goal, but still gave it another shot. This time around, I went for the preventative care. By admitting to myself I simply do not have self control in this area, I could better prepare myself and prevent the future failures. I bought extra nail clippers, cuticle cutters, and cuticle creams. I had these tools everywhere: near the computer, next to the bed, in the car, in a backpack, and at school. I gave myself no excuse for messing with my fingers instead of using my tools. Usually I keep a chart of some sort when I want to track a goal, but I figured I could track this one based on the appearance of my nails.

Over a year later, my nails are far from perfect. I still pick at them here and there. My thumbs are still funky looking. They break all the time. But, thanks to some patience and some hard work from a friend, my nails improved significantly and got to look like this on my wedding day:

PS - This month's goal is to blog more. I aim to post 5 blogs this month. Hope to see you soon.