It’s that time of year again--New Year’s! As the last bitter dregs (or pleasant days) pass us by, there always seems to be a ghost that promises to haunt us as it brings in the new year and that would be the specter of a New Year’s resolution.
For anyone who has attempted to take on the task of keeping a New Year’s resolution, and I’m sure there are a few people here who have, everyone knows it’s hard. But what I think most people forget is just how silly they are. I mean really, just because a new set of days has rolled around everyone thinks that the slate is wiped clean and that it’s as good a time as any to start doing things they simply don’t wanna do to better their lives.
Foregoing the idea that time as a concept is something entirely man-made (or, at least, something only relevant to us), we relegate ourselves to failure at the end of every December because we feel like the new year will provide us with the motivation to carry on and try again.
Honestly, I cannot begin to tell you how sad of a life you’ll lead if that’s what you’re being consigned to. January, save for some temperature drops and the increase in snow, (if global warming isn’t destroying that character trait for the first month), is really no different from December in any particular way. In fact, if you really think about it the 365 days of the year are no different from each other... but let’s not get off track.
What I’m saying is this: don’t just hope that your aspirations will come true in the new year and don’t sit around waiting for an arbitrary date to come to give you the strength to tackle them. Get up and do something with your life, especially in the winter months. Give yourself a jolt every month and make a resolution to accomplish on the eve of the next one. Better yet, make a weekly one or maybe a daily one. Or maybe, just don’t make resolutions at all.
Resolution as a word signifies an end, closure. By attempting to accomplish something a year in advance, you’re fundamentally looking for a result which is ultimately less likely to come because of it. You cannot expect to get that closure without just doing whatever it is you need to do to earn it. Don’t make resolutions, make habits. Go for a run, go read a book, go do something. It doesn’t matter, just make better use of your time.
