Is it that time of the year already? That time of the year to take inventory of all your wins and losses whilst frantically trying to conjure up a list of acceptable resolutions to impress your friends and family with. I had a revelation last night as I drearily put myself and my swollen feet to bed – I’ve decided to not make a single resolution for 2018 because quite frankly, I don’t think I’ve ever completed a single one of my resolutions. In fact, if you asked me what my resolutions were for this year I probably couldn’t tell you. Needless to say I haven’t achieved them and to save myself the disappointment of yet another year of failed resolutions – here is why you shouldn’t make any of for 2018.
I’ve made some pretty vanilla resolutions in my life; like the standard I’m going to work out more, eat healthier and read a book every month. Do you know how long the shelf life of these resolutions was? Less than a month. I’m writing this post as I chow down on KFC, I haven’t graced the gym with my presence in over two months (whilst still paying my fees) and my daily exercise consists of scaling the stairs in our house to get to the kitchen.
New Year’s resolutions literally set you up for an epic fail because we often conjure them from thin air with no planning or thought process behind how to actually achieve them. The chances of success are about as slim as me suddenly be able to crap wads of cash to fund the incredibly expensive venture of raising a child that we’re about to embark upon.
Why You Shouldn’t Make New Year’s Resolutions
Most Goals Take Time to Achieve (a lot more time) 
Let’s just say that your goal is to save enough for a deposit on a house – is it realistic to think that you are magically going to conjure up tens of thousands of hard earned dollars whilst not needing to spend a cent on everyday living? No. Imagine you get to December and find that you barely have enough saved to afford a plane ticket back home to see your family? Isn’t that going to make you feel like sh*t when you see that pathetic balance staring back at you. When we set ourselves big and important goals, we shouldn’t feel rushed to get it done because who needs that added pressure in their lives.
Peer Pressure
So you see everyone around you sharing their ambitious lists for the year ahead and can’t help but think that you’ll be falling behind unless you follow suit. FOMO gets us most of the time and a lot of the time all it takes is for you to realize that you’re not missing out on much. Whilst others may be ready for an overhaul of their lifestyle, you may not be in the same boat. Hey you may not even need a huge change because your life is pretty good as it is.
It Starts Your Year Off Negatively
Despite all the good intentions you have whilst making your list, by making New Year’s resolutions indicates to us that we’re not happy with an aspect or multiple facets of our life. It forces you to reassess all your inadequacies instead of focusing on all the positives in your life.
It Also Ends Your Year Negatively
Because resolutions are usually set and forgotten within the first few weeks of January. When Christmas creeps around as it inevitably does, you realize you’ve contributed 0% to f*ck all towards your goals because they were unrealistic – imagine the pity party you’d throw yourself. It then becomes a self-perpetuating cycle of feeling disappointed.
Remember… “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” – Albert Einstein
There’s No Reason to Wait for the New Year to Make Changes
What makes January so different to any other month of the year? For those who don’t live in Australia, January can be miserably cold and making resolutions like going to the gym everyday will seem ludicrous and unachievable. If you feel at any stage during the year that you want to change something, then do it right away because chances are you are actually ready for the change then. Putting it off until the New Year makes no sense.
At the risk of sounding cliché – every single day is a new day for you to start something. Making plans to change on the first of the first isn’t any different as making the same plan mid-way through the year. A genie isn’t going to appear and grant you three wishes on this day so why should January 1st be different to any other day. I’ve also found that setting daily and weekly goals to be much more effective than running the marathon of a yearly goal because you can celebrate your achievements quicker which boosts your morale and motivation to do more.
We shouldn’t really need to wait for a new year to roll around before making the flaky decision to stop or start doing something; all the while knowing that you’ll probably give up after a few weeks. Truth is, we need to let change start and happen intrinsically – that is, do it when our subconscious says its time and not our calendars.
Are you making any New Year’s resolutions for 2018?
