How to succeed at making New Year's resolutions without really trying

There's a coffee-stained sheet of white paper in the waste basket next to my desk. It's from New Year's Day when the family sat down and my husband recorded our resolutions for 2013. No one needs that kind of pressure around here, so I've resolved to recycle it and save everyone from themselves. Truth be told, until that morning I hadn't planned on resolving to do anything. At best I'm very committed to the possibility of making resolutions. Steadfastly open to the idea.

It's not that I don't enjoy the promise of January. Like snow covering the poop in the yard, it's time for me to forget about all of the things I didn't do to better myself in 2012 and forge a new set of goals to neglect. It's empowering to have an arbitrary date on which last year's over-eating, under-achieving, never-accomplishing, surrender to status quo can be ignored and forgiven.

I've managed the last 36 years with a minimum of resolve, and yet, I've managed a few feathers in my cap. For example, I buy whole grain bread and I have my teeth cleaned every six months. Is this the time to change my proprietary formula for success?

Before you start making lists and promises to yourself that you don't intend to keep, take stock. Have you, in the absence of well-intentioned resolutions, accomplished any of the following?

• Birthed/adopted a child that is not in juvenile detention?
• Earned a living that allowed you to buy name brand snack foods?
• Cured a disease, or, barring that, remembered to buy Band-Aids?
• Eaten a daily allowance of vegetables . . . over the course of a week?
• Used Kohl's cash before it expired?
• Listened to an entire State of the Union address? 

Why let a list of resolutions get in the way of the achievements that have you may own, sometimes to your own surprise, from your organic circumstances? You could be the next Jonas Salk, the next Mother Teresa, the next Abby Lee Miller from Dance Moms. Don't let good intentions stop you from achieving goals you didn't even have. 

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Want to see more good people failing to keep their resolutions? See them (and me) atThe Divine Secrets of a Domestic Diva, where I debut my pie-hole stuffing video.