On New Year’s Resolutions
New Year’s is one of the best holidays of the year because it affords us one last chance to review all of our big wins (and losses) for 365 days and allows us to celebrate taking another step forward in life. Most importantly, a new year allows us to work from a “clean slate” in a wide variety of ways. What’s better than that!
But that’s the optimist in me. And the optimist in me isn’t the most productive guy. If we’re being honest, we know that New Year’s Resolutions are kind of bullshit. No one sticks with them, they’re all very similar, and many times, they’re simply unattainable. New Year’s Resolutions actually give us an excuse to go overboard with our vices for just a bit longer in the ending year because our cognitive dissonance says “I’ll fix this next year. New year new me!”
We like to tell ourselves (and definitely our friends) that we’re going to be doing something that makes us less schleppy than the previous year before. Unfortunately, the point of New Year’s resolutions is not just to make them, but to maintain them. Ideally, you’ll want to maintain them for the whole new year.
But there’s almost no shot they’ll happen for the duration of the entire new year. You’re going to stop eating cheeseburgers for a full year? You’re going to stop cussing at people who irritate you? You’re going to take the stairs, instead of the elevators, every day for a full year? Don’t be silly. You love cheeseburgers and you absolutely hate people. And if the world allowed it, you would invent a one-person elevator so that you could avoid the stairs and people at the same time (and eat your cheeseburger in peace!).
The fact is that you’ve been eating cheeseburgers, swearing, and taking elevators all your life, and just saying “I’m going to stop” plus a new calendar isn’t going to change that. If just saying the change were possible, you’d have done all that a long time ago. You’d probably be in better shape and a more affable person if you did.
But the good news is that I have some tips to actually get some production out of your New Year’s Resolutions. If you adhere the following tips, I promise you that you can continue to tell yourself, this time with confidence, that you might actually get some shit done in 2019:
1: Get some minor shit done in 2018 so you can get some major shit done in 2019.
This is the first and most important tip. Too often we find ourselves under the gun when we set a new goal for the new year. We take it as an invitation to begin preparing for the goal on January 1st, and really don’t get into the nitty gritty of it until late January, when your motivation has already waned. The most common example is, of course, going to the gym and being more fit. The vast majority of people will wait until January 1st to buy a gym membership, buy healthier foods, and develop a workout plan. Realistically, that whole process will probably take a week to get going, and maybe even longer before you actually learn best practices for implementing those things.
You’re not going to learn to cook healthily and workout properly at the snap of your fingers. You won’t save money without coming up without having a plan you’ve already adjusted to. You won’t read more books if you don’t have any idea what you want to read. Get the planning and preparation done now so that you have somewhat of a discipline and plan when you start putting in the real work. It’s far too easy to procrastinate and lose interest when there’s no plan in place. Get the gym membership in November for Black Friday or even ask for one for Christmas (both of which are likely cheaper times). Develop a budget for yourself in 2018 so that you can track your progress early on as you save money. Doing the preparation in the New Year leaves you far too vulnerable to losing motivation and interest in actually working toward your goal. It defeats the purpose of actually starting your resolution.
2: Don’t tell anyone about your Resolution!
WHAT! Then what’s the point? While it’s difficult to take, this important tip is a psychological phenomenon. Based on an NYU study, publicly announcing your goals actually leads to a false and premature sense of completeness, and works as a demotivator to actually doing what you said you were going to do. The study essentially states that when you set a goal, there’s a gap between who you are and who you want to be. When you tout this “future person”, it closes that gap and you have belief you accomplished your goal without actual substance. I touched on this before when we went over touchdown dances.
It makes sense why we tell people about our resolutions: we want their support and we want to feel good. But what you should do, is write down your goal and keep it to yourself. It might be compelling to get people behind you, but the only person who will ultimately care about your resolution, is you.
3: Set a realistic resolution.
This last tip matters because you always want to do something that’s within reach. As stated earlier, you won’t change a massive facet of your life in one day. The results of achieving your goal will actually make you want to go further and do more. Instead of saying that you want to lose 40 pounds, start with 20. Instead of saying you want to save an extra thousand dollars per month, start with a few hundred. Once the new year hits, your motivation for creating a new goal to achieve will go down.
Realizing you’re nowhere near your goal will give you the quickest out to just stop pursuing it altogether. Take this opportunity to think about the small strides you made in the previous year and think about the actions you took to achieve those wins. There’s no such thing as a “mid-year resolution”, so come up with a goal you can achieve and move on to your next biggest achievement.
While this is a tough-love-heavy post, I write completely to assist you readers. I hope that in this coming year, we’re healthier, wealthier, and better people. Take care and have a happy new year!
