Resolutions!
January 8th, 2008 by Y.G.Let me be straight: I didn’t take any. I realized that what I wanted to do was in fact going on with things I was already doing, so making a resolution about it didn’t make sense!
Nevertheless, even though I don’t really believe in New Year’s resolutions, some (most?) people do, and if it can help them achieve their goals throughout the year or even after, then it’s all the better for them. And what are some resolutions that one could take, if visiting a weight loss blog? Losing weight and exercising in 2008, of course.
Enters the new gym membership and the diet plan. And my bet that among all these resolutions currently flourishing on almost every blog and other diary, most will have gone down the train by February or March at the most.
Taking resolutions CAN be useful. However, I think that we have to be careful in how we take them. Aiming for something too big or too vague is probably a sure recipe for failure, whether it is about losing weight, exercising, staring a completely new career, and whatever else would fit in the ‘resolutions’ category. Perhaps it is specific to human beings, that when faced with something too big, they end up self-sabotaging it ? I don’t know.
So here’s my take on this: if you wish to make a list of resolutions, make a list of small resolutions.
- Don’t aim at exercising three hours a day, six days a week, if you weren’t exercising at all before that. Instead, aim at exercising 30 minutes, three times a week. It already seems less of a daunting task.
- Rather than stating “I’ll lose weight” (too vague a goal), or “I’ll lose 100 lbs.” (too big, this time), just commit to losing 10 lbs. And then 10. And then 10 again. Here as well, the goal will seem more attainable.
- Don’t swear to give up all junk food and eat organics only. Cut out a little here, add a little there, and it will be a good start already.
- And so on.
Big resolutions are frightening. Maybe we don’t want to admit it, but they are. On the other hand, small changes are easier to include in our lives, and may not trigger that inner monster that makes us fail repeatedly.
As I said, I haven’t taken any resolutions for 2008, but there are a couple of little changes I wish to make, such as drinking less coffee or adding one hour of archery in my (granted, already packed) week schedule. At least these do not look absolutely impossible to make…
