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This May has been awful here in Dublin. Normally May is a good month, lots of sun and days spent on the beach, in the park, cycling or just being happy outside. This year I have rarely ventured out for too long as hail, rain, cold and wind have always sent me back home.

The upside of this bad weather is the excuses to do things indoors, spend afternoons watching films, or listening to music while reading books, drinking copious amounts of tea and dreaming. Sadly this has also made me a tiny bit too lazy and it is starting to annoy me more than just a little bit.

So with that in mind I have decided to change things, it may not be in my power to do anything about the weather (although I will try my very best) but I can do something about my motivation.

Now I know we all make many resolutions, mainly on December 31st to be broken on the 1st of January, but I do believe in change if we try hard enough, although I am really not sure how to go about it. An article I read a good while back recommended to stop doing things on autopilot, to actually think about what we are doing. After all we all do things without thinking about them and sometimes end up surprised at what has happened. Or am I the only one who gets on buses without checking their number and still ends up at home or drive a route I have a million times before and although I can’t remember taking a right hand turn still end up where I wanted to go or if someone asks me how I bake, cook or make a certain thing I can’t explain it but if you give me the ingredients I will do it without thinking?

It’s when these autopilot behaviour patterns start invading our lives too much that we don’t think about what we are doing and start creating too many bad habits. Like sitting down to watch a film and not realise that you just ate a whole bar of chocolate, or take the lift instead of the stairs even if it’s only two storeys up or snacking while we cook and all of a sudden the cheese is in your tummy not in the pot, or watching TV instead of reading, staying home instead of meeting friends. Basically sticking to the old instead of trying out something new and differnt.

As I know I won’t stop drinking buckets and buckets of tea, I can try to substitute the teaine laden kind with herbal, and as I will still have to sit at my desk a lot I can turn off facebook and yes even wordpress to keep me focused. I can leave the TV cold and call up friends and arrange a lot more chat time and I should take up salsa-dancing again and go to the gym more. I can’t change that I am a night-owl and not an early bird, but I can go to bed at 12am and not 2am which will make getting up early easier. And while all of this may not always be easy and  I know it will take up to four weeks to break my bad habits, I also know that with with willpower and a good attitude it should be doable.

So now all I need is to but my paint on, stick a feather in my hair and perform a sun-dance … wonder if “Let the Sunshine in” from Hair or “Soak up the Sun” by Sheryl Crowe will help.