Celebrate Ditch Your New Year’s Resolutions Day
It’s two weeks into the new year. How are your resolutions going? If you are like most people, they are not going well. Only 8 percent of people who make New Year’s resolutions manage to keep them, and most resolutions don’t make it past 2 weeks. So you are not alone if you are stumbling. It is so common, there’s even a day to celebrate it—Ditch Your New Year’s Resolution Day on January 17. Sometimes, a little failure can be a good thing. Here are 5 reasons it’s healthy to ditch your resolutions for Ditch Your New Year’s Resolution Day.
They Are Unrealistic And Vague It is easy to bite off more than you can chew when it comes to resolutions. Sadly, these tend to set us up for failure rather than inspire us to achieve greatness. For instance, it would be wonderful if a couch potato transforms himself into a marathon runner. But, the chances of that happening in the real world in a short amount of time are not good. If you do not quickly achieve that lofty goal, you may get discouraged and quit. Likewise, many of us resolve to “be healthier”. Without specific targets, like “eating 5 veggies a day” or “go to gym twice a week”, you may not make it. Research shows that the more specific you make your goal, the more likely you are to succeed. So, get rid of the resolutions to “be nicer” and travel to the moon and try for smaller, specific things you can accomplish.
You Do Not Have A Plan Having goals is essential to self-improvement, but you need to figure out the steps to that goal to be a success. Remember that couch potato who wants to run a marathon? He has amended his resolution to “running in a local 5K event”. However, he still does not know the way to train for that goal. Without a plan, he cannot hit even this modest target. Take a look at your resolutions, and toss ones that you do not have a plan to accomplish. It’s far better to use your time to concentrate on attainable goals with simple steps than to stress over objectives that are hazy.
Results Will Vary Beware of differences between expected results and actual accomplishments. You may think that a smaller waistline or quitting caffeine will change your life, but you may be wrong. While these may make you healthier, they may not turn you into an entirely new person. It can be easy to slide back into old habits when you discover the new ones will not solve all of your problems. Take a moment to think about what you really want to change in your life and why. If the resolutions you made won’t get you there, abandon them for better goals.
You Set Too Many Resolutions You only have one supply of willpower. If you made more than one resolution, this precious resource is going to be used up quickly. A study by Stanford University found that the more goals people make, the less likely they were to achieve them. It is normal to have several things you want to change in your life, but if you try to tackle too many at once, you will spread yourself thin. Pick one important resolution to work on and drop the rest.
Resolutions Do Not Work As we said in the opening paragraph, only 8 percent of the people who make New Year’s resolutions manage to keep them. The remaining 92 percent fail. Why? Well, resolutions are based on what you think you should be doing, not on what you want to do. There is a big element of peer pressure and living up to other people’s expectations in New Year’s resolutions. That is not a recipe for long-term happiness. If you really do not want to follow through on the resolution, scrap it. Then, you will have more time and brainpower to spend on things you really want to achieve.
Making positive changes is an excellent idea, but New Year’s resolutions are not the right tools to do it. Ditch your 2015 resolutions and find more effective ways to start living the life you want. Who knows—once the pressure of the resolutions is gone, you may begin to make some progress!
