New Year’s Direction

mtwadmin - Fri, December 31, 2010

I think New Year’s resolutions are total bunk.  I cannot, for the life of me, recall a single person I know actually losing weight, quitting smoking, picking up a new hobby because they made a vow on some arbitrarily symbolic winter day.  If anything, these resolutions seem to act as challenges or rules to the iconoclastic teenager part of our psyches.  A nagging, finger-wagging buzzkill who hovers over your shoulder nitpicking your life choices.  Who wouldn’t want to rebel against a voice like that by eating an entire Oreo cheesecake and washing it down with a pack of Marlboro reds?

Not that I don’t like the idea of goals.  I think goal-setting can be an extremely useful tool to improve health, state of mind, and general good karma.  But something about the rigidity and conformity of a New Year’s Resolution seems counterproductive to me.  It’s as if we make them because we’re told to, because all of our friends are doing it.  That’s never a good reason to make a change in your life.  Real change has to happen because you want it, for you. 

Instead of “resolutions,” I like to set “directions.”  I like to envision what I would like to see different in my life and make small changes that will most likely lead to its realization.  For instance, instead of saying “I’m going to exercise five times a week this year,” which sets me up to jump the shark as soon as I miss a scheduled workout, I would say, “I want to be more active this year.”  It may sound general, but it leaves you feeling more empowered day-to-day.  It can be as simple as choosing to walk to the store instead of driving, or electing to take a Pilates class or go for a bike ride instead of watching a movie.  It brings change into the present, instead of some imagined place in the future.  And of course, the present is the only place change can really occur.

And it also doesn’t need to start on January 1st.  If you need to make a change in your life, don’t wait for the calendar to tell you it’s time to “start over.”  Start right away.  You can make a change in the middle of the spring, summer, or fall.  It’s true.  I’ve tried it.