I’ve never been one for New Year’s resolutions. I am all for self-improvement. One’s work on that front should never be done. Despite this, the fad of New Year’s resolutions is not exactly conducive to setting or achieving a goal. Most resolutions are made last minute for the sake of conversation New Year’s Eve and the days surrounding it. If your New Year’s resolution was made for the sake of conversation, you will likely to have failed by Groundhog’s day.
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Like Calvin said above, I really do not feel the need to make any huge changes in the New Year. I like where I am in life, and I had started working on things I wanted to change before the New Year. Before you decide to make a resolution, take some time to reflect on your life, and what needs improvement. A resolution needs to be specific if it is going to stick all year. It needs to be more than the generic “get in shape” or “lose weight” resolutions that will doubtlessly begin polluting Facebook in the coming days. Instead of blindly hitting the gym, set a specific amount of weight you want to lose or try to hit a certain amount of reps by the end of the month. Having a specific goal in the New Year will make you more likely to succeed.
That being said, keep setting goals as the year goes on. If you hit your timed- mile goal by March, keep trying to get faster. If you’ve resolved to read more, the goal should not stop when you finish your first novel. You should keep broadening your literary horizons. Regardless of your goal, it is vital that you keep moving past your comfort zone. You should be broadly focused on self-improvement, and not the passing of milestones. Many of you would be surprised by what can be achieved if you move out of your comfort zone.
I’ve found that leaving my own comfort zone is easier if you have other people pushing you to reach your goals. There is strength in numbers. As clichéd as that sounds, people are more likely to succeed in any undertaking if they have a support group. If possible, find a local community that will both encourage you and hold you accountable while working towards your goal. Barring that, pop-over to Reddit, and join an online community. There is a subreddit for almost anything you could imagine, and most are filled with supportive individuals, who will be happy to see you succeed.
Although there are a number of factors, that can influence your success or failure in the New Year, the biggest factor is yourself. You have to want to achieve your goal. If your perfectly content being fat and sassy, then own it. No one is obligated to suddenly overhaul their identity because it happens to be January. The “new year, new me” mentality is not going to get you anywhere in 2016. The mentality should be “new year, better me”. Regardless of your shortcomings, there are at least a few parts of your life that are going really well. It is just as important to improve and maintain the parts that are working as it is to fix the ones that are broken.
In closing, the New Year does signify new beginnings - it’s in the name after all. However, just because you can start something new in your life does not necessarily mean you have to. If life treated you well in the last year, then by all means keep doing what you’re doing. January first is not an obligation to change. It is a chance to make things better.
