Rethinking New Year’s Resolutions

Ringing in the new year can be emotionally complicated. The start of the new year is a marker, it literally marks the passage of 1 year. Culturally, this demarcation of the passage of time is so important it has become a national holiday. We celebrate New Year’s Eve, we go to parties, stay up until midnight, and shoot off fireworks. We purchase our snazzy new calendars and display them in prominent places on the refrigerator or above our desks. In our western culture, the new year has also become an iconographic time when we collectively reassess our individual lives. As we take this time to reflect about our individual progress, many of us feel let down, disappointed, or dissatisfied. We look in the mirror and notice that we have gained 10 pounds, we think about how little we have accomplished, we take stock of our lives and see all the places we need to do/be better. We let out a deep sigh of frustration and make the promise to ourselves that we are going to make changes…because this is a new year...and so we make the dreaded New Year’s Resolutions.

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In theory, the idea of New Year’s resolutions is not a bad thing. It’s the start of a new year, a good time to kick old habits, begin again, become better people. The problem is not that we want to make changes at this time of year, the issue is how we approach making those changes. Most people set big goals as their resolutions: lose 25 pounds, go to the gym every day, stop drinking, get out of debt. The inherent problem with this is that big change can be very difficult to accomplish. Most people take on too much at one time and then can’t sustain it. Gyms are filled to bursting with people on January 2nd and by the 15th they are empty. Starting a Paleo Diet seems like a great idea, but by the second week it feels like too much work. Most people set big goals as their resolution and become overwhelmed by the effort. Once feeling overwhelmed, they lose momentum very quickly and usually abandon it altogether in a short amount of time. It is very difficult to persist in the effort required to bring about major changes. This cycle, unfortunately, usually reinforces the bad feelings that we have about ourselves and contributes to keeping us stuck.

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I would like you to consider a more reasonable approach to the New Year’s resolution thing: the idea of small change. Instead of setting a lofty goal that requires a lot of effort, identify 1 small change that you can make that you can realistically keep up. For example, if you want to lose some weight, start with simply removing the potato chips from your house or drinking a glass of water before your meal. If you want to quit drinking, begin by limiting your alcohol to only 1 drink on weekdays. Want to work-out every day…start with stretching for 5 minutes every morning. Turn off your phone for 1 hour daily. Read for 15 minutes every day. Put $20 in your savings account each week. Eat a salad for lunch instead of a hamburger. Small changes can be made in any area of your life! These little shifts don’t require a lot of energy and they more easily become habits. New habits pave the road for greater transformation.

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Don’t underestimate the power of small changes. Successes, even minor ones, make us feel good about ourselves. They energize and inspire us, and become the fuel for greater successes. I would like to encourage you to rethink your New Year’s Resolutions: instead of setting 1 gigantic resolution on January 1st , try committing to 1 mini-improvement on the first of every month. If you make 1 easy modification every month, by the end of the year you will have created multiple lasting changes. Small changes are easier to accomplish, they build momentum, and they add up!
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Happy New Year to you! May you make many small enduring changes!

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