A new year has come, reviving once again the cheerful hum of New Year’s resolutions. Personally I have always enjoyed the idea of making New Year’s resolutions because setting goals and writing them down with a fresh new start makes my visions more tangible. But my enjoyment and practice of goal making didn’t start with New Year’s. As I think about my goals for the new year, I realize that all of them have nothing to do with the new year, but with what I have long seen in myself. These resolutions are simply an outgrowth of the continuous self-examination I always try to practice. Hence my resolutions are of much greater significance to me than a passing thought during New Year’s Eve parties, or a suggested one I read on the Internet.
It is interesting to see what others are thinking about changing in their lives this coming year but instead of giving you the “Top Ten New Year’s Resolutions,” I suggest thinking about how you might want to choose resolutions, and how you can view those choices for the new year and beyond.
Reviewing the Definition
The New Oxford American Dictionary defines “resolution” as “a firm decision to do or not to do something.” With the high failure rate of New Year’s resolutions, the original definition of the word is now a joke.
Firm decisions to do or not do something don’t need to be made only around New Year’s Day. In fact it may be better NOT to make them during that time at all. The tradition of making New Year’s resolutions is a good one. Making goals in order to enact positive change is good, yet they shouldn’t come out of nowhere.
You will not achieve your goals if deep down they are unimportant to you. It would be nice to “lose weight.” It would be nice to “get organized” and it would be nice to “fall in love,” but the question now is, why now and why you? What is your motivation for change? A new calendar year? Shouldn’t changes be more than seasonal bragging rights? Shouldn’t they be made because you have come to a point in your life when you recognize that you need to change for your own well-being?
Take Time to Reflect
This requires some deep self-examination. One will make goals deeply connected to who they are if they take the time reflect on what is most important in life. Take a step back from the noisemakers and champagne to find some time to deeply reflect on where you are in your life: where you have been, where you are going, or where you hope to be. Making purposeful resolutions can be done daily, weekly, monthly, or a yearly basis.
Doing this on a weekly basis is even more beneficial. Taking some downtime for your self after the busy workweek is essential for our mental, physical and spiritual health. Think about who you are, what your life is made up of, or what you want out of life. How can you use your daily time more wisely, to achieve those goals? The more self-aware we are, the more the daily tasks we must perform reflect a higher goal and purpose for our life.
Many people choose to quit a disgusting habit for the new year, such as smoking. So, January 1st rolls around, and they decide, that’s it, I’ve quit smoking for good? One needs to ask, what has kept them from quitting the habit before? How did they start? Reflection of this nature takes the psychological and motivational factors into account. Once we target these we may come up with many smaller resolutions to heal over those mind barriers or distractions holding us back.
What’s Most Important?
While reflecting on our most cherished goals, we may find that having more “stuff” or doing more “things” is an unfulfilling goal most of the time. So instead of thinking too much about revamping your wardrobe, how about revamping your human relationships and quality of life? Think about how you treat others. Are you respectful, patient, kind, angry, superficial, or arrogant? It’s often the “little” things, like how we conduct ourselves, that become the “big” things, and even keep us from achieving those resolutions.
Concluding the Matter
Make sure your resolution holds significance to you beyond the calendar. New Year’s Day is certainly not a sufficient motivation. Look at the big picture, and be true to your values. It would be better to make no New Year’s resolution than to make one you would never achieve because you read it off the Internet. For the record, one of my “resolutions” is to make non-New Year’s resolutions.
Laura Little - Laura has always had two career passions in her life: dancing and writing. Her hometwon is Santa Clarita, California and she graduated ...
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