Do We Need To Make Resolutions?

Each New Year people rush to make resolutions. Something about January 1st compels them to think about what they wish to change about their lives, what they want to improve or what might be accomplished. It all seems rather arbitrary but every year it's the same; chimes strike at midnight and everyone is making resolutions!


I've certainly been guilty of doing the same. I get caught up in the excitement of the day and start thinking about all the things in my life that I wish were different or that I could change. And I guess like many people I either forget all about them or fail before January if it's the old chestnut about starting a diet or getting fitter. So is there any point to these resolutions? Are we just setting ourselves up to fail by making resolutions that are doomed as soon as we make them?


We all have things in our lives that we'd like to change. We all have things that we'd like to accomplish in our lives. But the problem is that most of us don't know how to make these things happen. We blunder about doing the same things as usual and another year passes and we haven't addressed our weight issues or improved our fitness or done any of the things we promised on January 1st.


So how do we go about making the changes we want? I suppose one of the problems with New Year's resolutions is that we rush to make them without any idea how we could make them happen. So we say we want to get fitter or thinner or learn to drive or parachute jump or - well you get the drift. But without a plan then things slide and February arrives and we've done little or nothing towards the dream or promise. So we abandon the idea until next year when we make the same resolution all over again.

Now I know that planning isn't sexy, not something we think of in a champagne haze at midnight at New Year but it's essential if we are to succeed. I have made plans to up my blogging game this year and to get my novel finished and published by the end of the year. And that is what is different from previous year's. I have thought about what I want to achieve, I have worked out the steps I need to take to get there and by this time next year I fully expect to have done all I wanted to. But the difference is that I have planned it all out. I'm not shouting out the usual platitudes over the chimes of Big Ben.  I know that's not the traditional way of doing things but it's rather comforting.

So this year I'm not making resolutions. I have already done my planning for 2017 and I don't need to add anything to them. I will try to get on top of my weight and fitness but I'm not going to put pressure on myself by burdening them with the resolution tag.

Happy New Year!