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Friday 1 January 2010

New Year Resolutions - Why?

It's that time of year again.
That time of year when everybody is busy making New Years resolutions. Resolutions that they will be determined to keep. But, which will probably be broken within a week, if they're lucky!

You know the kind of thing:
I will get fit, lose weight, stop smoking, read more, cut down on my drinking etc etc.

So, why do people make these resolutions in the first place?
My own theory is that most people make them because they feel that they should do so. There is almost an obligation to make those resolutions these days. After all, everybody else seems to be doing it, so why not me?

Maybe because i seem to have an inbuilt rebellious streak, i refuse to make New Years resolutions? But, not just because i don't wish to be told what to do. I also feel that for the vast majority of people, these resolutions don't really have much benefit.

As i commented to somebody on a YouTube video the other day. A video spelling out this persons own New Years resolutions by the way. Why wait for the New Year to try & change your life in some meaningful way? Surely, if something needs to change in your life, you should be making that change straight away?

We all need to re-evaluate aspects of our lives. But, this should be done all year round.
A resolution is for life, not just for the New Year.

As with most things in life, if you feel forced to do something, you will probably not carry it out. For something to work, so have to want to do it. Whether that be getting fit, or quitting smoking. If you are happy with the way you are, why change? Especially if it's just to please somebody else.
Of course, if there is a health issue involved & that person telling you to change is your Doctor. I suggest you listen!

I make resolutions all the time. But, i make them to myself.
Keeping them personal reduces the amount of pressure that you put on yourself to carry them through.
For example, when i stopped smoking, over 20 years ago now, i didn't tell anybody of my intentions. I just did it. That way, i didn't have people constantly talking to me about quitting smoking & asking how it was going.
You'd be amazed how much of a difference that can make to your resolutions success.

So, if you make one New Years resolution this year. Keep it to yourself, please.

1 comment:

  1. Hi, my name is Aaron.

    I agree that it would be more useful to make a life list or bucket list instead of just resolutions one year at a time. I think you've made a good point that keeping goals or plans to ourselves can lower the stress to complete them. But I also think there's something to be said for social support. If a person makes commitments to themselves and continually fails to fulfill that agreement, I would imagine the affect to be rather deteorating on their self worth. One person may find social support useful for a certain goal, where another person would find more success with the same goal by keeping it private. I dare say this is something where it's best to follow that middle path.

    Great blog entry Andy.

    ReplyDelete