New Resolutions Don't work!

No it's not too late to write about New Year Resolutions; after all who decides when the new year starts to get old? Is there a specific day we can pinpoint- say the middle of January, or the end of January, or even the middle of the year when we start to feel the New year getting old?

Today is the 21st of January, give or take a day depending on which time zone you're in. We're already past the middle of the first month of the year. How many of us have kept to those 'new year resolutions' that we so joyously started the year with? Perhaps some of us wanted to lose weight, learn a new language, pick up a new hobby, start a new business. It doesn't matter, we all started out with the best of intentions. What happened along the way? For those who have kept to their resolutions, congratulations! For the rest of us who haven't, there is always hope.

Why do we set New Year resolutions? Do we all have this secret desire within us to transform our lives? I think there's a part of each one of us that seeks to be better. To be a better person. To live a better life- one more in keeping with our dreams. So why do we fail to keep these resolutions that we were so determined about at the start of the year? Perhaps one reason is that many of us don't really know what we want; we crave everything that we think will make us a better person. Also we could be setting unrealistic resolutions that are not in keeping with our desires. For example, Iearning how to dance. We may want to learn it because we might have seen a beautiful example of it. However the want needs to be strong enough to keep the action going.

The motivation for wanting to do anything must also be equal to the action taken. Otherwise we may not even start what we write down on our 'resolution' list! I'm beginning to feel the word 'resolution' take a slightly more negative connotation; in fact some people set resolutions with the mindset that it may never happen. They've already decided that since setting resolutions hasn't worked for then in the past, it probably won't work even these year. Yet they're hoping for a positive outcome.

Maybe we shouldn't even bother with setting these resolutions and instead set goals- long, short and mid-term. This way we can closely monitor our goals and work on them everyday, rather than setting resolutions with a 'half-mind' knowing that they may never come to pass. On the contrary when we set goals and break them down into everyday tasks, they become far easier to reach. And the sense of accomplishment when we've achieved even one goal is priceless. So turn those resolutions into goals with a daily action plan and watch miracles happen!