While research over the years has concluded that about 80 percent of all New Year’s resolutions are broken by January 31, and if that resolution has something to do with health and fitness that 90 percent don't last past January 15th, the resolutions most likely to succeed are achieved when you are doing something you enjoy. Let's break it down a bit more, shall we?

Hooping is one of the best things that we can do with our time, yet life seems to always have other ideas for us. There is work to be done, bills to pay, the needs of others to address in our lives, yet taking time out for ourselves makes all of the above that much more worthwhile. We all know hooping is great exercise, but we don't always take into consideration is that when we feel better physically that this can only impact our lives in a positive way. How much time have I wasted running circles in my head about things, when spending even a few minutes spinning circles inside the hoop somehow centers my mind and brings greater focus. We need to give ourselves permission to spend the the extra time on ourselves and with ourselves. Everyone in our lives will benefit from it.

Another obstacle to achieving our New Years revolutions, I mean resolutions, is setting unrealistic goals. If we haven't been taking time out to exercise or eat right, or hoop for that matter, setting small milestones for ourselves that are easily within reach and take us a step further not only delivers us progress, it also does wonders for patting oneself on the back. When you set a goal and you achieve it, it's great for inspiring yourself for setting another goal, another step on your road to success.

Consider setting practice goals for 2008, a month at a time. For January, Caroleeena is going to be concentrating on kicking one leg out of the hoop. She explains, "I have a long way to go with this trick so every time I hoop, I plan to practice it at least once." Meanwhile, Nixi is going to "work on dancing to different styles of music. I have a tendency to have problems with hooping to some music, but I know I need to be able to hoop to anything." A New Years revolution, I mean resolution, doesn't have to be that you'll hoop every day for an hour. It can be that you'll challenge yourself to learn something new each month, or each week.

Another great tool for achieving our New Years resolutions is to also take a look at what we qualify as success. I grew up in a family chock full of black and white thinking and I inherited a very judgmental self critic somewhere along the way. Why try something new when I won't be any good at it overnight was a standard thought process for me. But who really is good at something new overnight? Maybe somebody, but for most of us it takes practice. If I set a goal to hoop everybody even if it's just for one minute, that for me would be a great success. It would represent that I thought of myself, my health, my happiness, the big picture and I did something, however small, in being true to myself. What greater success is there in life than that?

All of those incremental steps certainly add up along the way as well. Ask any seasoned hooper with a bag of tricks how long it took them to learn them. If anything, those who are new to hooping or returning to their hoops have the advantage of being able to utilize all the experience surrounding them in their communities and online to take progressive steps much faster than those of us who started out years ago ever could.

Let's make 2008 truly great by setting our New Years revolutions, I mean resolutions, to be something that nurtures us and supports us, not something that we use as a measuring stick we can never quite live up to. Set a schedule that allows the necessary time that we need and defend that time as invaluable. Set small achievable goals along the way. Get the positive support that you need for change, whether that is online or by heading out to your local hoop group - or if you don't have one, starting one of your own in your area. Practice love and tolerance of ourselves, changing our definitions of success to something that makes us feel like we truly are one, because we truly are. Hooping.org wishes everyone the very best in 2008 and may all your New Years revolutions, I mean resolutions, be ones you look back on with a sense of accomplishment and a grin on your beautiful face.