With the approach of the new year, these kinds of headlines are everywhere as fitness marketers try to take advantage of your fascination with new year’s resolutions.
For many years I was obsessed with new year’s resolutions going so far as writing them down in detail complete with schedules, milestones and goals to help me reach each one. Like most people I never met any resolution I made despite all my planning and all my good intentions.
So I stopped making resolutions!
It’s much easier to stick with your resolutions when you don’t make them in the first place!
New Year's Resolutions
Resolutions Don't Work!
But seriously, my outlook changed a lot once I stopped making resolutions every January 1 and here’s why:
Resolutions are stressful. For whatever reason we all seem to feel pressure to come up with a resolution (or 2 or 3) every year. How many times have you been asked what your new year’s resolutions are? When you hear other people’s you begin to feel like you need to come up with something, especially if their resolution is something big.
Deep down we all know resolutions don’t work. How many people do you know who have kept their resolution? It’s like believing that our elected officials will lower our taxes. We want to believe, but deep down we know it’s not happening.
Life changes – frequently. Many times we make a resolution that makes perfect sense on January 1, but absolutely no sense on June 1. Things change, people change, situations change. We need to be open to change or else we are simply pounding a round peg in a square hole.
Change is hard. Any change is hard, let alone some big crazy change that we think up on January 1. Personally, the bigger the change the less likely I am to succeed. For me changes come one day at a time, putting one foot in front of the other and plugging away at my goals.
Failure breeds failure. You make a resolution, you get a great start, then things slip. Before you know it you start feeling like a failure because you know you are failing to meet your resolutions and before long you are down on yourself for no reason at all. The resolution that was conceived to improve your life has dragged you into the mud and made things worse.
A few years ago I finally saw the light and called an end to the cycle of mindless resolutions. Instead I keep an open mind and I try to be on the lookout for opportunities to make myself better as I go.
What does this look like?
If I see someone I can help – I try to help right then and there. Helping someone always feels good!
I try to make good choices with my health. If I have a chance to take a walk at lunch time, I take it. If I have a choice between a burger or chicken, I have the chicken.
If I have a chance to shut the TV off and play a game with my kids, I shut the TV off.
My new approach involves doing lots of little things that support my bigger goal of living healthy, helping people, and making the most of the time I have with my kids. Because life changes so often, I’ve decided to leave things open and let opportunities come as they will. I’ve discovered that there are always opportunities to do beneficial and healthy things if you just have your eyes open to them.
Now, instead of feeling like a failure and beating myself up for not achieving my resolutions, I feel good each day knowing that I’m open to the possibilities and that I’m getting better at recognizing them as they appear.
It’s often said that doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results is crazy. For me, making resolutions every January never produced any positive results, so it was time to change my approach. That’s where my more mindful daily mentality arose.
So far I’m pretty happy with the results. Knowing that I want to live healthy, help people, and spend time with my kids makes many of my decisions easier. I don’t have to debate with myself about watching a football game vs going sledding with my kids nor do I have to think too hard about going for a bike ride vs sleeping until noon.
I’ve tried to boil it down to asking myself if the choice I’m making supports my goals. If it does, great, if not, then I need to make sure it’s something I want to be doing.
For many years I was obsessed with new year’s resolutions going so far as writing them down in detail complete with schedules, milestones and goals to help me reach each one. Like most people I never met any resolution I made despite all my planning and all my good intentions.
So I stopped making resolutions!
It’s much easier to stick with your resolutions when you don’t make them in the first place!
New Year's Resolutions
Resolutions Don't Work!
But seriously, my outlook changed a lot once I stopped making resolutions every January 1 and here’s why:
Resolutions are stressful. For whatever reason we all seem to feel pressure to come up with a resolution (or 2 or 3) every year. How many times have you been asked what your new year’s resolutions are? When you hear other people’s you begin to feel like you need to come up with something, especially if their resolution is something big.
Deep down we all know resolutions don’t work. How many people do you know who have kept their resolution? It’s like believing that our elected officials will lower our taxes. We want to believe, but deep down we know it’s not happening.
Life changes – frequently. Many times we make a resolution that makes perfect sense on January 1, but absolutely no sense on June 1. Things change, people change, situations change. We need to be open to change or else we are simply pounding a round peg in a square hole.
Change is hard. Any change is hard, let alone some big crazy change that we think up on January 1. Personally, the bigger the change the less likely I am to succeed. For me changes come one day at a time, putting one foot in front of the other and plugging away at my goals.
Failure breeds failure. You make a resolution, you get a great start, then things slip. Before you know it you start feeling like a failure because you know you are failing to meet your resolutions and before long you are down on yourself for no reason at all. The resolution that was conceived to improve your life has dragged you into the mud and made things worse.
A few years ago I finally saw the light and called an end to the cycle of mindless resolutions. Instead I keep an open mind and I try to be on the lookout for opportunities to make myself better as I go.
What does this look like?
If I see someone I can help – I try to help right then and there. Helping someone always feels good!
I try to make good choices with my health. If I have a chance to take a walk at lunch time, I take it. If I have a choice between a burger or chicken, I have the chicken.
If I have a chance to shut the TV off and play a game with my kids, I shut the TV off.
My new approach involves doing lots of little things that support my bigger goal of living healthy, helping people, and making the most of the time I have with my kids. Because life changes so often, I’ve decided to leave things open and let opportunities come as they will. I’ve discovered that there are always opportunities to do beneficial and healthy things if you just have your eyes open to them.
Now, instead of feeling like a failure and beating myself up for not achieving my resolutions, I feel good each day knowing that I’m open to the possibilities and that I’m getting better at recognizing them as they appear.
It’s often said that doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results is crazy. For me, making resolutions every January never produced any positive results, so it was time to change my approach. That’s where my more mindful daily mentality arose.
So far I’m pretty happy with the results. Knowing that I want to live healthy, help people, and spend time with my kids makes many of my decisions easier. I don’t have to debate with myself about watching a football game vs going sledding with my kids nor do I have to think too hard about going for a bike ride vs sleeping until noon.
I’ve tried to boil it down to asking myself if the choice I’m making supports my goals. If it does, great, if not, then I need to make sure it’s something I want to be doing.
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