With the passing of the year, a lot of people employ “resolutions” that they will adhere to beginning on Jan. 1.
At face value, this doesn’t seem like a bad idea. After all, what’s wrong with trying to better yourself? This question raises a fair point.
I’ll never judge someone for simply wanting to make positive changes in their life, whether that be trying to get in shape, quit smoking or focus harder on school.
It’s great to see people take an initiative in their own life. However, the issue is the timing and dedication of these resolutions. Whenever someone tells me that they’re going to get a gym membership and start taking better care of their body as part of their resolution, I can’t help but wonder why they just don’t start that day.
Why wait to make your life better if you can start making improvements now? It makes me think that the resolutions people start at the beginning of the year are just gimmicks.
This leads to another concern I have about this tradition. The initial desire to start improving yourself is great on its own, but it’s worthless without dedication. This is why I think resolutions are more of a joke than anything.
When you start something off as a gimmick, you’re probably not going to treat it seriously in the future. That is a recipe for failure.
Another issue I have is that people make resolutions because it’s the popular thing to do. With this mindset, you’re immediately setting yourself up for failure. You’re not in it for your own personal reasons. If your heart isn’t 100 percent into the cause, don’t even bother because you won’t see it through.
Instead of setting a large, daunting task at the very start of the year, make small changes you can implement into your daily life. This will make your goal much easier to adhere to.
Also, don’t clog your mind with too many goals you want to accomplish. Start off small and work your way up. Sometimes you have to hit rock bottom before you can really start improving.
I like to refer to this quote by Benjamin Franklin: “Don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today.” Most of the barriers we face are mental rather than physical. Instead of tackling a huge challenge from day one, start off small and start today.
Waiting until next year won’t make anything any easier.
