We’re about halfway through January 2020, and while a new year can be exciting, it also brings about stress: stress to complete the resolutions we set out to make on the first of the year.
Far too often these resolutions end up weighing us down, and we watch our motivation to achieve them trickle away before February has even started.
This is often because we put so much pressure on ourselves, and on the sentimental value of a new year, that the goals we set become less attainable, and instead, morph into somewhat of adversity for us.
This is why for me personally, I choose not to form resolutions specific to the new year. My resolutions are applicable to any time of the year, whenever I want to push myself to do better at something, or inspire myself to be more creative in a particular field.
Because the truth is, a new year is just another number, another day. And, while New Year’s Eve parties can certainly be fun, the drop of the ball at midnight does not change anything about you–you’re the same person you were exactly one second ago in 2019. As we get older, we begin to realize this and notice that, like birthdays, the year is just a rotation–a cycle that we celebrate as it increases.
While this may sound cynical, this does not mean you cannot strive to improve yourself. Setting goals is a wonderful tool for future success and reflect on your progress. But, forcing that change to occur simply because the calendar has started over, is frequently ineffective.
If you have a sincere goal for yourself, you can set that goal whenever. The day of the week should not dictate whether or not you will accomplish something. If in July you feel like changing something about yourself, picking up a new hobby, or dropping a bad habit, DO IT. You are entitled to these levels of improvement any day of the year.
Similarly, you are entitled to fall short, or even fail at these goals. Self-improvements are supposed to be challenging, but they should not rule your entire life. If you decide you’re going to go to the gym more often, and after week two you stop going–acknowledge that. Acknowledge why it happened, and accept yourself for not being perfect. But, don’t wait until January 1st of 2021 before you try again.