It’s a tradition as ingrained for us as turkey at Thanksgiving and fireworks on the Fourth of July – the New Year’s Resolution. The mantra rings in our ears along with the last notes of the musical act’s notes: new year, new you. Year after year, list after list, sometimes meeting with success, but most of the time – if you’re like me – it usually ends as failure. I could go to the gym starting January first, or I could spend the whole day relaxing after staying up all night and celebrating. I could start eating healthier, or I could give into my hectic schedule and go to McDonald’s for a meal or two. When the ball drops and the confetti flies, I have such big plans for myself. I’m going to do everything I was never able to do in the past, and this time, I’ll succeed. It won’t be like other years this time! But they usually are.
New Year’s isn’t a special, one-time-only resolution-making day. You can do that any day you want! You have to say to yourself, I’ll take it one day at a time. Making a grand picture, this year I’ll do this and that, it’s too much to handle. It’s too easy to slip and be okay with slipping. Make promises to yourself every day, not one day in a year. You can start whenever you want to change something.
If making resolutions to be implemented from January 1st, 12:01am forward works for you, then work it! Go after those goals with courage and power. That being said, don’t fall into the trap of feeling bad or left out if you don’t do that, and if it doesn’t work for you, then don’t feel obligated to make them anyway. Be honest with yourself; keep it real, and you’ll be happier as the months pass.