It's that time of year: brainstorming your new year's resolutions. We all know it, we all hate it. You tell yourself that you're going to go to the gym more, drink less, and a lot of other life improving things. And then next thing you know it's the middle of February and you're eating mac n cheese after a 6 hour Netflix binge.
Resolutions go like this: Make big plans, stick to them for 2 weeks, fall off the wagon, and then inevitably feel guilty because you didn't do everything immediately. By June we're burned out and tell ourselves "oh I'll just do it next year".
Why do we do this to ourselves? Year after year we set ourselves up for disappointment with goals that are impossible to achieve. There are several problems with the resolutions we make.
We make too many. Once we brainstorm a couple goals, we get on a roll. Suddenly you think of everything that you want to change about yourself, and your list grows and grows. The problem with having a dozen or so goals is that inevitably you forget half of them. Then in May, you'll remember that you were supposed to keep track of your monthly budget.
They're unrealistic. Have you ever said "I'm never going to drink again" or "this is the last time I'm going to eat McDonalds"? We all have, the problem is that once we inevitably break it (because we're human and flawed), it's over. You slip once and fail, and if you failed then what's the point of keeping it up since you already broke the promise?
The goals are too vague. You want to lose weight, that's great but how? What do you mean when you say live life to the fullest? We make goals and not plans. The great thing about New Year's Resolutions is it lets us be lazy. We think of things we want to change but never take the next step
So this New Year's do something different. Have you put "exercise more" on your list for 5 years and never follow through? Always tell yourself you'll save your money but find yourself in debt next year? Here are some tips:
1. Reflect on your goals last year, and pick out what worked and what didn't work
2. Think about what you really want and what's the most important
3. Only have 3-5 goals
4. Create a specific timeline of goal completion with short term goals.
Check out SMART goals for an easy way to plan goals that you can actually accomplish.
But the most important thing to remember is that you don't have to start on January 1st and completely everything by December 31st. Our success shouldn't have a start and finish date. We're workings in progress always improving and changing. So if at any point of your year you want to change something, change it! If you want, call it a New Month Resolution, or a New Day Resolutions.
Do what you want to make you happy, and keep moving forward. Happy 2017!
