It’s that time of the year. Or is it of the next year? Tonight, or tomorrow, people will take new resolutions, as every year. And as every year, you can bet that 95% of them will have given up by the end of January, or perhaps February at the most.
Resolutions can be a good thing, as long as they actually prompt you to get started with something, whatever it is, but they don’t work in my case. At first, I thought it was because I was just lazy; in fact, I guess it’s more because I don’t see the point and don’t really understand the purpose of the whole thing. I tell myself that if I can take the resolution to do X or Y from January 2008, then why can’t I do it from December 2007? Or March 2008?
I won’t even try to guess the amount of people who will resolve to “lose weight in 2008″. Again, if it allows them to find the commitment to do so, then it’s all for the best. For me, it just feels like the same old elusive “I’ll start my diet on Monday”, and it’s not like I haven’t had had proofs of this either. Not one week ago, a member of my family told me “I’ll start my diet, but not before New Year is over”. Which to me sounds more like “free license to pig out on food until then, in a Last Supper manner, using the holidays as an excuse” — we’re not a very extended family, and I know that between the 26th and the 31st, this person would not have had to face countless dinners and temptations. (As for me? Well, I did pay attention during those days, and lost a pound from what I had much unfortunately regained. Seriously, why wait for NEXT YEAR if I can get it done NOW?)
Therefore, once again, no resolutions for me. I don’t need to resolve to do something I’m already doing. Lose weight? Exercise consistently? Eat a minimum of junk food, and favour healthy foods? Yup. Already doing it. There are bumps on the road, but there’ll be bumps as well in 2008, after all. Nothing new under the sun. And if my trip along this road is a slow one, I don’t care, as long as I reach my destination with the least amount of hurt as possible (even the way I’m doing things, I run into problems of obsessing over calories and the likes, so what would it be if I were doing some crash diet…).
Oh, I do have “goals”. Not being heavier than I am now by January 2009, for instance. (Maintaining is so much harder than losing, then regaining, then losing again, then… Well.) However, provided I just go on doing what I’ve been doing so far, I know it’s a goal I’ll attain, period. No need to write down a “resolution” for that.
This said, if anyone feels that a list of resolutions WILL help them, then by all means, I hope it will, and that things will work out alright!
January 1st, 2008 at 20:34
I slacked off in 2007, so I have made some goals, posted at my blog, to keep me focused.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!
January 2nd, 2008 at 21:40
I see the New Year as a time to refocus, revisit and re-evaluate the long term goals I already have in place, and not a time to make grandiose lifestyle changes I will never be able to stick to. The key to big change is consistency as you allude to.
January 3rd, 2008 at 20:26
Thank you for your input, Tami and Aaron, and welcome here.
If goals can keep a person focused, indeed, it’s all good. I guess we just have to be realistic regarding these. “Losing all the excess weight” would seem huge and daunting. But breaking it up into smaller, more achievable goals would probably be better?
Aye, grandiose changes don’t really stick with me. I don’t know why, though. It works for some people, it doesn’t for others.