I stopped making New Year’s Resolutions a long time ago because I realized that the whole practice has a massive fundamental flaw that creates a huge barrier to making them happen.
That flaw is that you’re giving yourself an excuse to procrastinate. There isn’t anything magical about January 1 and so there is no logical reason to put off doing what you can start doing now. If you want to lose weight, learn Mandarin, or train for a 5K, there’s no reason you can’t immediately start eating better, enroll in a class, or get out on the road and run.
Most of what people resolve to do isn’t anything spectacular; in fact, it’s pretty mundane. It’s not to say these things aren’t important or, at the least important to those who want to do them; they’re just routine enough that there’s no need to give it some artificial grandeur in your head. Turning something relatively simple into a big deal just gives it more power. It becomes a lot scarier as well as gives you extra time to rationalize your way out of it.
By starting on something immediately when you think of it, you don’t give yourself enough time to psyche yourself out. Figure out your plan, start your research, but do something that is going to force you to commit to it immediately. In modern times, words alone are useless. Ever say you’ll believe something when you see it? Why should you believe anything you’ve said before you show yourself you’re going to make it happen?
If you’ve made some resolutions for 2012 and haven’t already started working toward those goals or even worked on creating a plan to get there, there’s a really good chance you won’t meet them. If you really want to change something, just do it.
Now.
