Lifestyle Editing: New Year’s Resolutions

As we enter into the New Year, people all over the globe are making New Year’s Resolutions.

“Resolution” implies a certain degree of resolve (naturally). This in turn implies that a firm decision has been made. What it does not necessarily imply is that these resolutions are actually kept.

Not keeping resolutions seems to be as prevalent as the making of the New Year’s Resolutions. So why do we bother to make them at all? As far as I can tell, we make New Year’s Resolutions for any one or a combination of the following three reasons:

1) It is expected of us;

2) We are not satisfied with ourselves, the way we live our lives, or what we see happening around us;

3) We want to feel as though we are Making Progress.

After the excitement of a holiday, we need to take a rest and cool down during January. That makes it an ideal time to re-assess ourselves and to re-define what we want from life. But without a holiday to look forward to, and with the cold weather settling in, it can also be a particularly un-motivating time of year. In addition, why bother waiting until the New Year to start making changes? Why not change now, if we aren’t too happy with our present circumstances? Why should we feel as though we have “failed” if we don’t meet up to the standards we set (and why do we then feel as though it’s okay to revert back to our old habits)?

The stress that is placed on the very wording of the phrase “New Year’s Resolutions” has turned into an all-or-nothing, doomed-to-fail set of aspirations. Because of the pressures of New Year’s Resolutions, I’m not a big advocate of them. But that doesn’t mean I don’t believe in personal growth: rather than coming up with resolutions at the end of December, I prefer to take action when the urge strikes. If I want to make a change at some point during the year, then I will challenge myself to achieve that goal and improve my lifestyle.

The New Year might be a good opportunity to re-assess ourselves and decide what goals we would like to achieve over the next twelve months, but ultimately we’d be better off if we instead re-assess ourselves periodically at many times throughout the year to re-define ourselves and our goals. Through our own trial and error, we can figure out what works for us, and not be limited by the intimidation of New Year’s Resolutions.