The Day You Made Better New Year’s Resolutions

At the beginning of every year, I sign up for mundane resolutions including gym memberships — only to lose interest in a few months. I’ve spent a considerable amount of time evaluating and I couldn’t believe how simple it is. I’ll tell you the main tricks here so you don’t have to waste your time and can keep those resolutions.

Making New Year’s resolutions is all about being a better person — professional or personal. The main technique is to keep things simple and evaluate the underlying motivations of your resolutions. Recall your resolutions now.

What is the underlying intent for each of your resolutions? Is the intent driven by belief or by fear? Take some time — honestly — and dig down to the assumptions underlying your intent. Are you trying to overcome a weakness? Or you perceive it as a weakness, when its truly not? Or to put another way, Will taking action on your resolutions uphold your beliefs or genuinely free the mind from fear?

Ideal resolutions are ones that can withstand the test of time and motivates you to wake up every morning and take skillful actions on those resolutions — on a daily basis! It’s all those small daily mundane actions that add up to bigger results that we call success. Maybe, one of those resolutions next year could be to learn how your mind works and figure out how to make better decisions.

Do you have the ability to trust yourself when the chips are down? Do you uphold your beliefs only when it’s convenient and discard in the face of adversity?

You may reinforce causality — every action has a consequence and determine to take better actions or believe that gym membership is worth the time and effort, so you look good naked. There’s no silver bullet — but superficial resolutions for me don’t stick anymore.

Is ‘quality of life’ determined by the pursuit of happiness? Is ‘quality of life’ determined by the integrity and quality of our intentions?

There you go. You now know some questions to refine your resolutions and to stick with it. You’re welcome and Happy New Year!

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