In the public consciousness, New Year’s resolutions are often viewed as a joke. Over time, they’ve entered a place where we consider them temporary experiments, rather than the long-lasting changes they’re ostensibly supposed to be. Rather than settling for so little, however, it can be possible to leverage New Year’s resolutions for real change. Both in what challenges we adopt and how we face them, real differences can be achieved, with the right approach.
Choosing a Resolution
As tempting as it can be to choose an enormous change like running every day, such drastic shifts to our daily lives are often non-starters. Humans are creatures of habit, and while we can slowly modify these habits, rapid changes will often have our bodies and minds screaming in opposition. To combat this problem, there are two possible routes we could consider.
The first is choosing something we already know we can do. Consider pet ownership as an example. This tends to play an important part in many of our lives over the years, and it’s something we understand. What we might underestimate, however, is the positive influence that this could have by changing how we view the experience.
“Calypso” (CC BY-SA 2.0) by @rsseattle
Each year around Christmas there’s a surge in older pets being abandoned, as not nice people desert their existing furry friends in favour of younger and cuter replacements. Thanks to efforts from the DSPCA and certain supporting groups like Lottoland, there’s a considerable movement underway to rehome these animals. Not only are resolutions like this extremely manageable thanks to previous experience, but they also have a profoundly positive effect on our closest friends.
The second route in selecting a more achievable goal as a resolution is to set your personal goals high, but the minimum standard low. For an example of this, let’s turn back to the exercise example. It might be well and good to aim for 45 minutes a day working out, but we need to walk before we can run.
Keep your goal in the back of your mind, but work with the assumption that just five minutes a day is enough to cover the minimum. This amount of work can be achieved in a couple of advertising breaks on TV, so it never runs the risk of being swept aside for requiring too much effort.
With such small steps, it then becomes much easier to build a higher workload. Sometimes you’ll be tempted to keep standing and putting in the exercise after the five minutes are done, pushing out and even beyond the 45-minute barrier. Other days, you might need to relax after five minutes, while still being content that you haven’t completely failed, so you don’t need to abandon the idea altogether.
“New Year Resolution” (Public Domain) by geographer700
Of course, these are just two examples of resolutions, and there could be dozens of other choices that better meet your needs and lifestyle. Whatever you choose, just remember that attitude and setting realistic goals is the most important thing, and you could be well on your way to enacting serious long term change.