By Laura Marshall
The countdown begins. The ball drops. And everyone starts singing. Yes, the New Year has officially been rung in. And with the New Year comes the annual tradition of your New Year’s resolutions.
But how many of you, year after year, make the same New Year’s resolution? I want to lose weight. I want to write more. To drink less. Be less stressed. Get organized. Spend more time with family.
I know I have. And you know what, I never follow through. Oh, I might start out for the first few months (more like weeks), but then life kicks in and the resolution goes out the door. What’s even worse is research shows only 8% of people who make New Year’s resolutions actually stick to them (that means a staggering 92% abandon their resolution!). And those who don’t usually abandom them after just one week!
So now that we’re a few weeks into 2015 I’ve decided that I’m done making New Year’s resolutions. And here’s why:
1 – Resolutions assume there’s something wrong with you.
The whole point of a resolution is to find something wrong with you that you need to fix. Let’s decode a couple: “I need to lose weight” means you’re overweight; “I want to write more” means you’re not writing enough now. These resolutions are actually negative because they make you think of yourself in negative terms. That you’re not good enough. And that’s bullshit.
2 – You set yourself up for failure.
Most of the time you end up making unreasonable goals that you can’t maintain for the month, let alone the year. After just 9 days into 2015 heard a girl at the office already say she broke her resolution. Yes, she is one of the 92%.
3 – If at first you don’t succeed, you give up.
And once you’ve failed it’s easy to feel it’s not worth continuing.
This year, instead of saying “I’m going to lose weight” and “I’m going to write more blog posts” and all the usually resolutions, I’m deciding what I want to achieve. Then I’ll come up with reasonable lifestyle changes that should help that happen. And if I lose weight or write more blog posts then that’s the result of my mental and lifestyle change.
It’s not a “resolution.” It’s a choice to change my lifestyle and my habits.
I won’t say there’s something wrong with me. Something that needs to be fixed. Because I’m awesome just the way I am.
Why I’m Not Making New Year’s Resolutions Anymore