Many people have been asking me about my "New Year's Resolutions", lately. I find it somewhat difficult to explain why I don't make New Year's Resolutions because I feel quite strongly about the subject but I never want to offend anyone. So this is my explanation (if you are a person who makes resolutions, please don't be offended, these are just my thoughts on the matter):
I used to make New Year's Resolutions up until I was about 17, when I finally realized my "resolutions" always failed. Literally...always. It took me a while to figure out why, but after much deliberation I realized that New Year's resolutions aren't meant to be kept. You are meant to make them, fail and forget about them...until next January. It's a tool to make people feel good about the fact that they "intend to be a better person this year."
That may sound a bit cynical to some of you but this idea made me consider what it really means to set goals. I believe that if you have a goal that's important enough for you to change yourself fundamentally, or change your life in some way to reach it, then it's probably important enough to start making that change immediately. Why wait until the first of January?
I discovered my reason for waiting until January was I didn't think my resolutions were actually that important. If I make a To Do list I put the most important task first and the things that can wait closer to the bottom. By waiting to start my goals I was unconsciously giving myself permission to treat them as unimportant. I also found that most of December was spent in dread of my resolutions and therefore, over indulging in bad habits as a last "hurrah" (which, naturally only strengthens those bad habits).
When I set goals I start immediately. I never say "starting tomorrow" or "after I finish this." Putting it off for any length of time places it in the
unimportant category: Life's too short to be wasting time on frivolous changes and tweaks that can wait until tomorrow! I either begin now or it's not a goal worth making.
I view New Year's Resolutions as a permission slip to fail and I don't want to fail. So I quit making them.
Happy New Year Everyone!
