No more New Year’s resolutions… and Happy Holidays

It is getting to that time of year when, after a season of over-indulgence, many of us make promises to do better in the New Year.

When the New Year rolls around, we are good for maybe the first three weeks, after which everything goes pear shaped. Indeed, according to Kelsey Mulvey at the Business Insider (Jan 2017), 80 per cent of us will break our resolutions by the second week in February.

Over at the Huffington Post, Carolyn Gregoire suggests that we don’t stick to our resolutions mainly because we try to do too much too quickly; we get discouraged by small failures, or we try to make too drastic of a change overnight, literally.

It is as though we expect the millisecond between 11:59 p.m. on the 31st of December and 12 a.m. on the 1st of January to magically endow us with the will to change the previous year’s (or years’) bad habits.

I am not going to lie, I have been there; resolving to do better in certain aspects of my life that I felt needed an improvement. I understand the promise and optimism that comes with the New Year; new beginnings, new energies and a new hope like a Skywalker. I also, unfortunately, understand how it feels when the rest of the year eventually strikes back.

Over the years, I have found that it is more sensible to make small changes where you are. Why wait until an arbitrary date on a calendar to make the changes that you feel you need?

Why not take the step, right now, to do that thing you feel compelled in your spirit to do?

Want to walk more? Start ambling. Want to lose some weight? (Who doesn’t?) Hop to it! Want to meditate more? Go on Zen! Want to change your lifestyle? Why wait? Just do it like a Greek goddess of victory.

The point is, if there is something in your life that you feel you need to change, that you feel you could work on, that you believe in and that is important to you, why not take the step or steps to make that change now? Is the change going to be less significant if it happens before January first 2018? Are its chances of success less likely if you decide to start today?

The follow through is often hard, speaking from experience. The follow through will be hard even in the new year, because change is difficult. Breaking bad habits and toxic routines, mental and physical, takes time and a lot of follow through. It requires a great deal of dedication and patience, things that are hard when you have so many other things that acquire attention, like you know, life.

Resolving to change when you need it and doing the most to achieve it, because you deserve it, may well be the key to winning at your resolutions, not the beginning of the first month of the new year.

With that said, I would like to take the opportunity to wish everyone a wonderful season and peace and blessings for 2018. May grace and wisdom guide your steps and compassion for your fellow humans fill your heart. From mine to yours.