The holiday season is the time for giving, receiving, complaining about gaining weight, and making resolutions that will eventually fail. I myself am not immune to this. After all the giving, receiving, and complaining about my pounds (and about the comments others made about it), I sat down to make my new year’s resolutions.
I’ve always made new year’s resolutions with varying degrees of success. While I was writing down potential resolutions for 2016, I found the list I made for 2015 and was pleasantly surprised when I ticked off the things I accomplished for the year. I didn’t accomplish everything, but seeing that list made me realize why resolutions usually fail.
When we make resolutions, we don’t normally write it down. It’s just something that we think about, like “I want to lose weight this year.” Sure, we stick to our guns in the first few weeks of January, but by the time February rolls around, we have forgotten about it already. That’s because we have no accountability. We don’t have a constant reminder that there was something we promised ourselves while watching the fireworks illuminate the dark New Year’s Eve sky.
I have always advocated for carrying a notebook at all times. It’s where all my random thoughts, ideas, and plans go. Early last December, I bought a Midori traveler’s notebook and stuffed it with three Field Notes notebooks in Pitch Black. I like the idea of having three notebooks because I get to organize my thoughts instead of jamming everything in one notebook. The first Field Notes is for my thoughts, while the second one is for lists. The last one is for my 2016 resolutions. Besides the list of things I want to accomplish, it’ll serve as a tracker to see if I am on my way.
Besides writing things down, it also helps if you want to quantify things. One of my frequent resolutions is to watch more movies. But what do I mean by more? How do I know I’m watching more movies compared to last year? For 2016, I promise to watch 50 movies, a measurable and realistic number.
That’s another thing I want to keep in mind as I start the new year. Realistic. By setting up crazy resolutions (I want to have six-pack abs by summer!), it’s like you’re setting yourself up to fail. Yes, I do want to improve my body, but I have erased any delusions of grandeur and settled on being healthy and removing excess pounds.
So as January rolls to a close, where am I? I’ve seen five movies. I’ve been to six art exhibits (completing my goal of seeing six). I’ve seen two plays (out of six). I haven’t read a book (out of 20), I had to remove plans for two websites, and I had to change my workout routine. I’m okay with changing resolutions because they’re supposed to be fluid depending on your lifestyle and obligations, but it feels nice seeing how far you progress.
How about you? Where are you on your new year’s resolutions?
