So This Is The New Year
New Year’s. What a sneaky holiday.
Just as you’ve finished polishing off a turkey, stuffing, and 8 pounds of pie, it ambushes you. It’s like it knows its big brother Christmas will get all the attention, so it just lingers a few days behind, and smacks you faster than you can say “No-one actually calls it having thirds, right? It’s still called having seconds?”
Classic.
Yeah…. Thanks Pope Gregory XIII. Put the most reflective holiday exactly 1 week after the holiday on which we indulge the most. Nothing like starting a new year with an extra 10 pounds of cake on ya. It’s almost as if someone knew we’d have to hit bottom before we’d even consider anything like a New Years Resolution. Ahhhh those clever Catholics!
- Side Note: The week between Christmas and New Years has got to be the LEAST productive week of the year. Nobody really takes it seriously, right? It’s like a free week of….. Whatever. …. and then BAM come the resolutions!
New Years Resolutions are probably one of my favorite parts of the end of the year. I just love hearing all the grandiose changes people plan on making all at once, expecting it to stick like magic. Do you know what percentage of New Years Resolutions are kept for the entire year? 8 percent. That means 92% of resolutions fail.
I’m not rooting for failure here, I’m just wondering if maybe there’s a better way to do this…. maybe some adjustments can be made to help us actually meet our goals. Here are some thoughts.
1. Set reasonable goals.
2. Set a real timetable for results.
3. Start small, and build momentum.
Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Change is hard, and takes determination. The larger the change, the more difficult it will be to stick. Choose a goal that is lofty enough to inspire you, but not so out of reach that you won’t have any realistic chance of reaching it.
If weight loss is your goal, come up with a plan to lose weight with goals to meet each week, instead of blindly saying “I want to lose 30 pounds”. If debt reduction is your goal, do the same. Attack your goal in chunks, setting small goals along the way. Meeting these goals will create momentum that will encourage you to keep going!
Small changes are easier to stick to, so try changing some small things, and practice sticking to the change.
For instance, my wife is trying a juicing fast for 15 days. I’m not really prepared to go that hardcore, but I have decided to replace 1 meal with a homemade juice each day over that same time period. Only a couple days in, and I feel really good about the change. Since it’s a relatively small change, it doesn’t feel like much of a sacrifice, and getting the nutritional value of 1 juiced meal sure beats having no veggies at all (Funny enough, I’ve actually kind of started craving the juice - it’s really quite delicious).
Making this one change, and feeling good because of it, has actually inspired me in other areas. I’ve been running more recently (5k every morning), and just being more aware of what I’m eating. The way that makes me feel only inspires me to continue. That’s the kind of momentum I love!
So…. What are your New Years Resolutions?
