Resolution Revolution
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Happy new year, I hope this finds you well?
Have you made any resolutions? Less drink? Less food? More exercise? To find the perfect man? A cure for cancer?
Good on you. I mean you’ve only failed to deliver against them every year of your miserable life, but still you persist…that my friends takes balls…..balls and a freakingly tiny brain. Ask yourself why you are making a resolution….because it is New Year, right? And that is what people do, right?
And then they FAIL.
Because it is a stupid, fuck-headed, naive and totally pointless thing to do.
If you have something that you want to change in your life, that you REALLY believe you need to take action on, something that is so important to you that you’ll break the shackles of habit and inaction then you will already have started to do it. You haven’t because either you don’t want to or you are just plain incapable of it.
I don’t blame you for that…..I don’t think it makes you weak. I think it makes you human. Humans are beautifully imperfect. And that is why we lemming like follow traditions that we know are pointless and absurd. The 1st of January is no different to any other day of the year. Resolutions made at New Year are statistically more likely to fail than those made at other points in the year, but hell everyone else is doing it so why don’t we?
You want my advice? If you’re ready to make a change, you’re ready regardless of the time of the year. If you’re not, don’t fall for the commercial pressure and the dumb witted group think. Wait until you are, wait until you know what you want to achieve and you have the resources to do so. Not only will you feel more like you own the change, you’re more likely to stick at it and be successful.
And after all….that is the whole point of it, right? Or am I missing something…..?
My Hell is Other People 
Great start to the year my friend…and so very true!
I lost count of the number of New Year’s Days that were going to be my first without smoking…if I was lucky I may have got to the 3rd or 4th of January!
Then it just happened on a random night in Summer when I was at home, no cigarettes anywhere and it was either go out at 10pm in search of a packet or give up. I chose the latter option and 6.5 years later it is still one of my best decisions.
Now, about that alcohol free 2011 I was promising last Friday night….!!
Ha! Agree totally. I never bother. I am also passionately anti Valentines Day for the same reason. If Mr J loves me he can bloomin’ well tell me and buy me flowers or take me out for dinner at any time of year, not because some commercial decision dictates it!
Existentialism talking. You are definitely right about resolutions. Totally pointless unless you do it in the way I do it. I am setting my resolutions every day not every year. And if I don’t make it well, that explains the imperfect me “beautifully” as you say. Wendy I am with you about Valentine being another pointless date, but some people need it as a reminder and I am thinking women too.
Love this message. Step up and make the difficult changes you need to make today, but don’t hide behind a built-in excuse for failure that it was “just a New Year’s resolution.”
I think it’s fine for people to make a rod for their own backs, but to do so on an arbitrarily contrived date makes no sense.
As the fuller Nike tagline says “Just do it, and don’t go on about it!”
Resolutions are to New Year’s Day what Hallmark is to Valentine’s Day.
A day when we let guilt take over the true spirit and motivation of change and/or love.
I agree completely. You’ve naield it again.
The only benefit of making the resolutions for New Year that I can see is that everyone is in the same boat so there is possibly some peer support to help you maintain them. That said, if your peers are any good, they’d support you anytime – its just handy if they are doing the same thing at the same time.
Other than that, you’re spot on.
I don’t think I’ve ever bothered with resolutions at New Year’s. I never saw anyone stick to them, and knew I would never do it either. Like you say, if I ever wanted to do something, I did it when life events were moving in that same direction which meant, yes you can do this now. Here’s a list of things I did without waiting for the New Year: started Twitter, a blog, had children, got a job, decided to move house.
@Mervyn Dinnen – Great comment….I had that experience too….I just think sometimes there needs to be a whole number of things aligned in order to make a real change and the chance of those happening on 1 Jan are remote.
@Wendy Jacob – Umm…right…I’ll be back in a minute…just need to nip round the corner to Interflora…..
@HRbeginner – Taking every day as a step is a good way to think about it.
@Jay Kuhns – Thanks for taking the time to comment and thanks for providing a comment that sums up what I was trying to say better than I managed to! 🙂
@Stephen O’Donnell – Agreed.
@Corporate Daycare – You and Wendy Jacob aren’t the same person are you?!?
@Gareth – I agree about peer support…but it can also be peer pressure too….
@Sukh Pabial – I’d love to hear the New Year resolution, “this year I am going to have a child….oh and start a blog!”
Sometimes a little tradition can be quite pleasant – this evening, I shall be at a twelfth night orchard-visiting wassail. Confused? You will be, when they ask for the virgin, the toast and the shotgun. An event not to be missed. I might even audioboo some of it.
Great post!! I never make New Year resolutions and totally agree with others re Valentines Day.
I have decided though that I am ready to make some changes in 2011. Whilst I am not calling them resolutions, I do have some goals I want to achieve and I finally have some time to dedicate to those goals – it’s pure coincidence that I am embarking on them at the start of a new year, honest!
Happy to disagree on this one. Make a resolution when you like, but New Year is a good time because, well the clue is in the title.
And why are we saying failing to stick to 100% of your resolution is complete and utter failure? Only managed to stop drinking for 3 weeks of Jan instead of the full month? Good on you son – that’s helped your liver anyway. Promised to visit your parents once a month instead of twice a year and it only lasted til June? Well done love, they loved all those trips anyway.
As humans we like rituals and ceremony, putting resolutions in a clean and crisp new diary (yes – the one that is only updated til Feb, at most) feels good. Yes those resolutions will fall short in time and achievement, but by then you’ll have new goals and interests and focus.
Right, off to prep for my company Performance (Resolution) Appraisal, same time every year…..
@James Mayes – Que?
@Sarah Durbridge – It is as good a time as any….but that is my point I guess?
@Mark Darby – Prepare to fail? Not sure I agree with that mantra…..
As a mantra – I like it. I shall begin each meeting shouting it.
England’s goal for the Ashes was to win it without losing a test. Is it a failure that they only won it 3-1?
Any resolution is good, just don’t beat yourself up to much if you don’t hit 100%.
Please don’t think I am some namby-pamby who thinks taking part is the most important thing. I once swallowed a dice at Yahtzee so I wouldn’t lose (I was 26 at the time).
A twelfth night wassail – a tradition worth sticking with, but quite bizarre (and noisy!) by most standards! http://audioboo.fm/boos/249921-a-tarring-wassail