Most
people make them.
A
lot of people break them.
Some
think they are silly.
A
New Year. A new start. A fresh approach. A change for the better.
Why
do we choose to make massive life changes at the beginning of the year? Surely
we’d be more committed to achieve our goals if we made more realistic ones when
they were warranted rather than under the pressure of a new year.
In
ancient times, the New Year was the time when people recommitted themselves to
their Gods. The 1st day of the first month of the New Year seems
auspicious, so why not start afresh on this day.
But
the pressure! Don’t you find there’s pressure to make NY resolutions? Then the
pressure to keep them!
New
Year Resolutions are universal and are all based on improvement.
Improve physical
well-being: eat healthy food,
lose weight, exercise more, eat better, drink less alcohol, quit smoking etc.
Improve mental
well-being; think positive, laugh
more often, enjoy life
Improve finances: get out of debt save money, make
small investments
Improve career: perform better at current job, get a
better job, secure a promotion or pay increase, establish own business.
Improve education: improve grades, get a better education,
learn something new (such as a language or music), study often, read
more books, improve talents.
Improve self: become more organized, reduce stress, manage time, be more
independent, perhaps watch less television, play fewer sitting-down video games.
Take a trip.
Volunteer to help others, practice life skills, use civic virtue,
give to charity, volunteer to work part time in a charity organization (NGO).
Get along better with
people, improve social
skills, enhance social intelligence.
Make new friends.
Spend quality time with
family members.
Settle down, get engaged/get married, have kids.
Pray more, be closer to God, be more spiritual.
It’s
a bit like a business plan – you know the goal, the question is how best to
achieve it.
K
eep
I
t
S
imple
S
tupid
And
S
pecific
M
easurable
A
chieveable
R
ealistic
T
imeframes
For
some reason these acronyms have stuck with me since News Ltd days in Sydney. I
subconsciously apply them to all sorts of things and it works (depending on my
passion at the time)
So
instead of simply start excersing
one should commit to ‘within the first month of the new year I will walk 5
km/miles 3 times a week building up to double that within 3 months’ and so on.
Improve finances could start with (yet another) visit to a
financial advisor (after all the one you might have seen the year before didn’t
know what they were talking about, hence the need to do it again), and commit
this time to doing as they suggest.
Improve self, if we did that we might not need New Year
resolutions, after all the common denominator in all this is ‘you’.
For
all of the above reasons, a lot of people choose NOT to make New Year
resolutions, me being one of them.
I
truly believe any time of the year is the right time of the year to commit to a
positive change, but it has to be the right time for YOU. Circumstances are
constantly changing and affecting the way we think, behave and feel. So why not
make adjustments, rather than changes as and when needed.
This
is the right time for us.
We
need to get fitter, loose some weight and get moving.
We’ve
hired a treadmill and will be using it daily.
I
have a Moonwalk marathon in May and DH is leading a sedentary lifestyle that
isn’t healthy.
So,
with no huge goals to achieve, no over the top promises to one’s self, or the
world, we’re starting with one step at a time as of Monday.
Do
you make NY resolutions?
What
were they for 2013? And how did they differ from 2012?
How
are you going with them so far?
With
friendship
X
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