I am breaking my New Year's Resolution. Maybe you should too.
Life is pretty subjective. In one year you can receive the greatest news of your life and be on top of the world. In the same span of time, you can have the world come crashing down on you. These things could be 365 days apart, or they could happen within 20 minutes, but nonetheless, they can happen.
While we might not always be happy with the direction life is moving, we are a part of it and we just have to keep rolling with the punches. Since life is so subjective, it seems to me like we are setting ourselves up for failure when we choose to make a New Year's Resolution. How can we make a yearlong promise to stick with something when we don’t know what our circumstances might be tomorrow? I am not saying it is not good to have goals, I just think there could be a different approach to a New Year's Resolution that would make it more likely to follow through with them.
If you are someone who can follow through with your year-long resolution, kudos to you, I am envious of that.
Time and time again I have tried to make New Year's Resolutions and have yet to follow through with a single one. From drinking more water every day to going to the gym four days a week and to my latest failure, giving up ice cream. I was in over my head from the start on that one. I did last three months before caving though, which was significantly longer than I originally anticipated, so that was a little victory.
I guess I don’t really know why I gave it up. Maybe it was a self-control thing, but I’m not entirely sure. It was when I was in Florida for spring break and I saw a little stand in the middle of a theme park that was just too tempting to pass up. It was a Dippin’ Dots stand and it was calling my name. The delicacy is hard to come by these days, and I knew it was time to break the resolution.
I thought I was going to feel a level of guilt with breaking the New Year's Resolution, but, as it turned out, I enjoyed every second and did not look back.
But every time I do make a New Year's Resolution and break it, I then seem to not follow it again at all for the rest of the year. It is as if since I already broke it, it does not matter enough to start all over again.
It was then that I made a new commitment to myself.
Life is short, so instead of restricting or holding myself to something every single day, I’ll take it one day at a time.
Every day we have a choice. We have a choice to make a commitment to ourselves, whatever that may mean for us.
So maybe ice cream is not the best metaphor, but my point is if it means making the commitment to myself each day on what I will and will not do, I think odds are I will do a better job of following through.
So there you have it, I quit my New Year's Resolution, but I have made a commitment to spend each day being more conscious of my decisions and going from there. II must say, it is a choice that has made me a lot happier, not to mention full of more ice cream.
Whatever it is for you, whether it is ice cream, going to the gym, or anything else you can think of, take it one day at a time. Even if you fall off track don't be discouraged. Get back on and keep going, my friend. You've got this.
