I don’t believe in New Year’s Resolutions.
Seriously.
I never make them.
New Year’s is an arbitrary date, for starters, and a resolution is just so…inflexible.
I have goals. Yes.
I have plans. Of course.
I believe in practice and improvement.
But resolutions? Nope.
What I don’t believe in is unrealistic proclamations to do a complete 180 from where I am right now.
I don’t like setting myself up for failure.
And with resolutions, the odds are against you.
Do you when that most resolutions have been abandoned?? By February!
Seriously.
In fact, the 2nd Friday in January (Jan 9th this year) is dubbed “Quitter’s day” because that’s how quickly almost half of resolution setters lose steam.
You make that resolution on 1/1, and just a couple weeks later, poof!
Gone. (Along with your self-esteem!)
You’ve lost steam, you’ve given up, you’ve accepted defeat.
You say “well, better luck next year”.
Does that mean that you shouldn’t try to improve? That you shouldn’t set goals?
Of course not.
- But instead of resolving, how about practicing?
- Instead of binary, how about incremental?
- Instead of new me vs. old me, how about getting just a little bit better, every day?
- How about accepting that sometimes you take a step backwards and that’s ok?
It doesn’t mean you’ve failed.
It means you’re human.
You can try again tomorrow.
And little by little, things will improve.
And if you keep at it, bit by bit, step by step, when December comes around and you look back at the year, you’re going to feel differently.
You’ll see your successes.
You’ll see your improvement.
So this year, how about a kinder, gentler, more-likely-to-succeed approach to self improvement?
Are you ready to ditch the resolutions and embrace of the practice of practice?
I hope so.