The only New Year’s resolution I’m making this year is to not make any others.
My mom, bless her heart, told me about a joke in which a man said he wanted to start a new gym that opened Jan. 1 with great deals on memberships to cash in on the goals to work out more and lose weight. The man’s plan was then to change it to a bar at the end of the month so people could eat and drink while they complain about their failed attempts at their New Year’s resolutions.
It’s the age old story of New Year’s resolutions: You get really excited and tell yourself you are going to lose a lot of weight by the end of the year, and then you end up bingeing on a king- size Frosty and french fries halfway through February. Believe me, I’ve done the same thing.
As soon as you see that the pounds aren’t melting away, like you envisioned when you made the goal, the discouragement sets in and the goal goes out the window. If it isn’t the discouragement that encourages you to give up, then it is the laziness.
Anyone could make a goal to lose weight during the year and accomplish it, but it doesn’t happen just because you decided to do it for New Year’s.
If people took the time to make a goal and a plan to achieve that goal, then they are more likely to accomplish it. Real change requires concentrated effort. However, people don’t want to put forth the required effort most of the time.
People say they want to do something: eat a little better, work out a little more, put away more money, smoke a little less, whatever it may be, but then they don’t see spectacular results as fast as they wanted so they get discouraged and give up.
When you plan, those setbacks don’t cause you to give up. You know you have to assess yourself and your progress in perspective of how much time is realistic to accomplish your goal. New Year’s resolutions don’t work because you don’t plan long term for your goal.
Of course, resolutions aren’t limited to losing weight. You can be as diverse as quitting smoking and drinking, or buying a new car. I’m definitely not against the idea of goal-setting and trying to improve your quality of life. You need to refrain from getting excited about the new year and letting that excitement give you unrealistic expectations of how much you can change in an unrealistic time frame.
All of these goals are possible and would be great to achieve as long as you make the proper preparations to do them. You have to plan ahead and outline the steps to accomplish these goals, rather than sitting down Dec. 31 and just brainstorming a list of goals that are too good to be true.
Don’t fall victim to the excitement that will only set you up for disappointment.
