Happy 2022!
However, every New Year, I cringe the moment someone asks me-Did you make a New Year’s Resolution?
Sure, I, like millions of others, used to do this very thing. When it came time for the clock to reach midnight and a new year turned over, I thought, this is the year for (fill in the blank here). It would either jump start my year, January would be a month of change, I would do the thing that I promised myself I would accomplish.
As soon as February hit, that goal would get a little bit waned. I wouldn’t feel as confident, I wouldn’t spring into action with the renewed sense that I was going to make a change this year. And by the time March hit, that resolution would have gone flat, like soda in a can that had been left open for too long.
It took me many years to come to the conclusion that I hate New Year’s Resolutions.
Call me a cynic, but I just do not see the need to make them, and I really wish people would change their attitude towards them entirely.
The thing about New Year’s Resolutions is people tend to think they are too big when it comes to making them. From the most to least common:
- I want to lose weight
- I want to save money
- Get healthier (though I feel this can include #1)
- Find love
- Get a better job
Wow, talk about pressure. This is what we have deemed the “Ideal” person in our minds. All of these encompass the notion that they are just way too out there for a person to seriously attain.
Numbers 1 and 3 are good to join together because I feel like the notion of Getting Healthier is far more achievable than just losing weight. But again, that is looking at the very wide picture. Think of it like this.: What is one thing you could do in your everyday life that would make that goal Think SMALL, VERY SMALL. Maybe it is something as simple as rather than taking the elevator at work-instead, take the stairs?
Oh sure, that sounds easy. Okay, did you do it?
How about saving money. Ah, hmmmm, this is hard. But, think of it like this-would your life be that much better if you got that latte from the store? Or instead, make it a treat once a week. Not nearly as fun, but that $6 coffee five times a week is $30! If you get it once a week, you have a surplus of $24 dollars! Add that up over the course of a year. (PSST-that’s $1248 dollars!)
Again, small changes-easier said than done however. But, if you were determined to add something to your list on December 31 at 11:59pm, why not try thinking small?
Books worth checking out:
Change: How to Make Big Things Happen by Damon Centola
Change Anything by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny
Photo by Sebastian Hietsch at Pexels.