The New New Year’s Resolution

The New New Year's Resolution

They’ve said that the definition of insanity is trying the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Why should we think any differently about how we start every year? It feels like every time January first comes around, we all decide that we’re starting a whole new way of living. I know for me, that whole new way of living only lasts until March before I’m back in my old routines. That’s why we’ve come up with a simple formula to help take the pressure off you and help you be successful with your resolutions for the year. It’s what we’re calling the New New Year’s Resolution and it all comes together in 5 easy steps. 


  • Start Now!

The calendar doesn’t dictate the New New Year’s Resolution. You do. You’re making choices to make your life better, so why not start now? Regardless of what you want out of the next year, you can start immediately. Want to travel more? Start by just looking up some destinations. Want to be healthier? Decide to eat better TODAY. There’s no better time to start taking care of yourself than right now. It takes time to develop healthy habits and if you start as soon as you can, then by the time the new year rolls around, you’ll already be living the life you want. 


  • Consider Other People

Resolutions are usually a way to improve yourself. They work on a small part of you as a person and help you reframe your relationship with yourself. The New New Year’s Resolution, however, wants you to re-build your relationships with other people. 2020 has been an unprecedented year and a lot of us have felt isolated and alone. So why not resolve to build and improve relationships with all the people you didn’t get to see this year? 


  • Go Big

There are plenty of people who will tell you to set manageable goals for yourself, that giving yourself a higher chance to succeed will help keep you motivated and on track. I agree with a lot of that, but I also think that there’s nothing wrong with setting your goals as high as you can. Let’s look at it like this: the best case scenario is that you achieve a lot of what you wanted and you’re filled with an amazing sense of fulfillment and pride. The worst case scenario is that maybe you don’t complete your goal, but you’ve still made some small progress on your way to failing. However you want to look at it, you’re already in a better place than when you started. And when you decide to give it another go, you’ll be a little more ready to go even further.  


  • Go Home

Make choices that are comfortable and comforting. There’s a lot about life that encourages us to take chances and find ways to challenge ourselves, but there’s a lot of value in finding out what makes us comfortable. Do we know what the small things that make us happy are? You might not be able to see right away how this could be a New New Year’s Resolution, but again, the key to a successful NNYR is to take the pressure off yourself - that means in every way. Maybe you’ve resolved to get an extra half hour of sleep every day; maybe it’s to take some time to read or spend with your family. Whatever you choose, good resolutions start at home. 


  • Be Okay with Failing a Little

There’s a lot of ways to call failing: “getting sidetracked;” “a bump in the road;” “a slip.” Whatever you want to call it there’s one fact about it that can’t be argued against: there’s no success story that doesn’t include a lot of failure. In fact, we’ve all seen plenty of it, probably with our resolutions in the past. This is a simple step, but it might be the hardest one to follow: failing isn’t the end of a resolution. It’s a way to think about how to be successful next time. Failing isn’t a dirty word - its an important part of the process.

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