No resolutions, just commitment.
‘Tis the season….for me to frequently get asked to speak and write about New Years’ Resolutions…and frankly, I hate resolutions. They seem so smug. They’re not very helpful. Also, they tend to notch up the pressure on what’s already an innately high-pressure situation: the situation of improving one’s life. Not to mention, if you want to learn French or run a marathon or get married…why wait? It certainly isn’t going to be easier next month. If anything, the passing days will continually raise the stakes. You want to make changes? Bueno! What are you waiting for?
Instead of making resolutions—which, in my opinion, just tend to make people feel guilty, anxious, and thus put the brakes on the type of focused, consistent work necessary to effect real change—why not get organized, and think about which of your choices worked this year, which didn’t…and why. As the expression goes, failure is the father of success. You can learn enormous amounts about yourself–such as why things aren’t working– from being honest with yourself, about choices you’ve made, or avoided. Of course, not making choices is definitely a choice. In my experience, the best change comes from a place of acceptance, not punishment.
Instead of making exhaustive and exhausting resolutions to deem 2016 Your Year of Yes—even as you keep saying “No, dammit!,” to all sense of reality and common sense—why not choose to do even one productive act today? If you want to write a book, instead of holding off till January 1 (when, let’s be real, you’ll probably be hung to the over, and not feeling quite so literary. Speaking from all-too-personal experience, hold off on those moonshine shots. That sh*t is outlawed for a reason, kids.), why not open a Word document today, set your timer for 15 minutes and write? Imagine if you spent the rest of this month, writing every single day for as little as 15 minutes? By January 1st, 2016, you might have your first chapter! If nothing else, instead of the pressure of resolutions, you’d have the reality of concentrated effort.
Real change takes real hard work, not resolutions
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