Why You Shouldn’t Bother With New Year’s Resolutions

Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash

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.

Yes, I have goals. 

Of course, I have plans. 

I believe in practice and self-improvement.

But 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 know the date that most resolutions have been abandoned?? 

It’s February 1st!

Seriously.

You make that resolution on 1/1, and a little over a month later, poof!  

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 backward 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, little by little, step by step, when December rolls 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 the practice of practice?

I hope so.

(And if you need a little help along the way, you know where to find me.)