So Many Resolutions, So Little Time…
I began by asking, “What’s your number one New Year’s resolution?”
She replied, “If I want to make a change in my life, I just do it. I don’t need to wait for the New Year to set goals.”
I, with a defiant smirk: “Indeed… However, people generally need benchmark points for their goals, lest they get distracted by the everyday. The New Year is a convenient benchmark for reflection and renewal of one’s goals and desires, no?”
She, with an engaging grin: “Good point.”
As much as I would like to claim a rebellious counter-cultural stance on the ever so cliche’ “New Year’s Resolution“, I actually find the tradition quite beneficial. And although it is also a lesser stated cultural norm for most people to become distracted from said resolutions by the end of January, I make them anyway. Last week I sat down to jot a few that were on my mind, and by the time I was done the list was a whopping twenty-four long! So I began to make good on my organization goals by categorizing: general, diet & exercise, personal, and business. The goals themselves range from “improve name recall when introduced to someone new” and “lift weights at least twice weekly” to “stop cracking knuckles” and “create a new business marketing plan“. Many of the resolutions were already in progress and some are even renewals of past resolutions failed. Regardless, the fact remains that my conversation partner was right: New Year’s Day is a (mostly) arbitrary reference point. I could just as well do the same thing in February. Maybe I will. Either way, I currently feel rejuvenated by all the reflection and goal planning, empowered by the energy that comes with the beginning of a new year, and motivated by the vision of any or all of these goals realized and complete. Now if I could just resolve to do it again next month…