"Don't think about what you can't do, think about what you can do!" --Ni Hao, Kai-Lan

"The older you get, the more you become aware of the things you can't change and the things you can change. Like, do I want to take a year off and travel around the world? Sure! Can I do that? No. [So] what can you do?" --Teri Hatcher

I saw this interview with Teri Hatcher in a friend's copy of People magazine. She was talking about the triathlon in which she participated last September--when she asked herself, "what can you do," the triathlon was the answer. I won't pretend I'm a huge fan of Teri Hatcher, but I think she makes an excellent point here.

Most of us have lists of things we want to accomplish, and sometimes those things are pretty ambitious (like taking a year off to travel around the world). I'm not saying that those things can't be accomplished, and you should definitely not let pessimism stand in the way of getting to do amazing things. But maybe they're justnot the most practical goals for us right now. That doesn't mean that we can't still be doing something worthwhile!

A former roommate's husband wrote a blog post recently that echoes my own feelings about New Year's resolutions (but of course this is applicable to all goals, not just the New Year's ones). Like Teri Hatcher, he points out that sometimes goals need to be smaller--or be broken up into smaller pieces--to be achievable. Instead of getting discouraged by huge goals that seem unattainable, try thinking about something you can do right now, or in the near future, and work toward that. Setting and achieving smaller goals can make it a lot easier to get to those big ones, and in the meantime you'll be getting to do great things.

(In case you're interested, the title of this post comes from an episode of Ni Hao, Kai-Lan in which the kids are disappointed because it started raining, so they can't go outside and do the things they were going to do that day. I know, I know... I'm that cool.)