Why I Don’t Make New Year’s Resolutions Anymore

Did you make any New Year’s resolutions? Are you sick of reading about this topic? (I hope not!)

I’m not one much for making resolutions at the beginning of every New Year. No, I’m more of a goal setter. Sort of.

Resolutions vs. goals, what’s the difference?

Plenty.

Words matter.

Words have power and since cancer, for me, they seem to hold even more.

Or maybe it’s just that I’m more tuned into words partly due to all the labeling that tends to go on in Cancer Land. As I’ve written about before, I don’t like many of the cancer labels which often get loosely handed out.

Labels belong on soup cans, not people.

But back to resolutions vs. goals…

To me, a resolution feels far too demanding.

If one resolves to do something, well, it better get done or else, right?

A resolution is a proclamation to yourself, and sometimes the world (by the way, telling the world can be a big mistake, IMO), that you fully intend to achieve something quite specific.

As we all know, many of the resolutions we hear being made at this time of year are about improving ourselves, especially the way we look. Tons (pun intended) of people want to lose weight, exercise more or eat less. Of course, we all say we want to do these things to make ourselves healthier, but deep down, we really want to look better too.

Another one of the most popular resolutions is deciding once and for all to get organized. Boy, I can relate. I’ve made this resolution more than a few times!

The problem with resolutions like these is that they imply we are flawed, which of course, we are, but I think it goes deeper than this. We convince ourselves that if we can just stick to our resolutions and follow through with them, we’ll be better and yes, happier people.

Resolution success equals happiness success.

That’s a lot of pressure, and it’s not quite that easy is it?

Then, mid-February (or whenever) rolls around and we find ourselves falling short yet once again of sticking to our resolutions. We often tend to be pretty hard on ourselves. Self-judgment often leads to feelings of failure and maybe even lower, self-worth.

It can be a vicious cycle this making and breaking of resolutions.

Even if we manage to keep our resolutions, we might discover that lo and behold, we aren’t in fact any happier than we were before.

One way or the other, New Year’s resolutions often result in disappointment.

Goals, on the other hand, are much less demanding, less judgmental and thus, just might allow for better opportunity for success.

You can clearly define your goals or keep them general, whichever works best for you. Goals are things to shoot for. With goals a person can feel good, or at least better, if even a little progress toward achieving them is made. Goals don’t have to be an all or nothing sort of deal. With goal setting, little steps count.

And goals don’t require perfection.

Who needs that pressure anyway?

Of course some might say I’m making it too easy to not be accountable to myself. I’m giving myself an easy out, an excuse to fail.

This may or may not be true. And guess what? I don’t care.

I’m still sticking with goal setting instead of resolution making.

What about you?

Do you keep your resolutions/goals private, or do you share them with others?