New Year New Me?
Okay. This is the time of year when folks tend to say goodbye to their new year's resolutions. Personally, I rarely make new years resolutions because I have never liked them. When I am fresh off of my SyFy Twilight Zone Marathon binge on new years day, I am only thinking about how great that show was and how it was ahead of its time. Am not thinking about how I can put unrealistic pressure on myself for the new year. No thank you.
If you do an internet search for "when do people give up on their new year's resolutions" you will find millions of results. Millions. Why is that? My answer: Because most new years resolutions suck. Sorry, that is just how I feel. But, starting now, heading into February, is when many people start abandoning their new year's plans. Let them go!!!! LET THEM GO!
Look, I appreciate and support the intent of the new year's resolution, but I don't appreciate the pressure that we put upon ourselves to do them. But... but... I want to make a change in my life. Super, let's start there.
The problem with resolutions is they are usually only the end goal or just something very generic. "I want to get healthy this year." Whoa. Okay. Do you remember the episode of South Park with the Underpants Gnomes? Phase 1 collect underpants, Phase 2 ?, Phase 3 Profit. And yes, I am talking about a television show again. Say what you will about South Park but it is very popular and is known for its brilliant satire. Sorry, not sorry for referencing it. Back to the Underpants Gnomes. Similar to new years resolutions, they knew they wanted to make a profit but had no idea how they were going to make the profit from the underpants they've collected. Ultimately, they never made a profit but continued to steal underpants. This is the same for my generic new year's resolution example "I want to get healthy this year." Most of the time people make resolutions without even making a plan. It is like just yelling it out into the universe and hoping it comes true while continuing to do the same thing over and over without a different result.
Before you make another new year's resolution, ask yourself this question "Why do I make new years resolutions?" If your answer is something like "this is what you are supposed to do at the start of the year," throw resolutions out the window. Don't do them. You just end up beating yourself up for not doing it and that is just silly.
Now you may be asking yourself, "but I want to make a change to my life." Okay, let's take a step back and think about why you want to make this change. Is it because society says you need to be something different? If that is the case, throw resolutions out the window. Don't do them. Don't let society tell you that you should take up less space, or look a certain way, or sound a certain way, or, or, or. The list is never-ending. Society puts so much pressure on us all. It is exhausting.
I know, there are some of you reading this who make resolutions each year and then knock them out of the park. Great, then continue doing that, I think you should. But, for the majority of us, they do not work. If they never work for you, let's make a new years resolution together. Here we go: This year I resolve, to not make any resolutions!
Boom, we did it! 100% success rate.