12/25/2022
Food for thought..borrowed from a friend
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!! Oh my Goddess, it's almost 2023!
And speaking of the New Year, here's the vital question: How can you be happier at the end of 2023?
I stopped doing New Year's resolutions 24 years ago. The day I decided to do that (or not do that), I felt such a huge relief. And believe it or not, that was one of the most amazing and productive years of my life.
Instead, I do something else (more on that below).
But first, as promised, here are the 3 reasons why I'm advocating you should NOT do New Year's Resolutions:
1. They don't work - people don't keep them
Studies show that only 8% of Americans have stuck to their New Year's Resolutions by 6 months out. I think it's actually worse than that. My favorite "New Year's Resolutions Don't Work" story is from one of my friends who owned a restaurant in Omaha, where I used to live. They had great food and a fabulous salad bar, and over the years, they discovered that on January 2, people ate twice as much salad, because they were acting on their resolution to eat healthier and lose weight. However, by January 3 it was already back to normal, with people ordering the same amount of cheeseburgers, fries, etc. as they had before. Their resolve was only good for one day!
2. They're so negative - they make you feel bad about yourself
Even though the resolution can be couched in positive terms, such as "I resolve to eat healthier" or "I resolve to be more organized," what people are actually doing in these situations is going over the behavior they are telling themselves they shouldn't be doing. "I should stop eating like a pig," "I should stop being a couch potato." Even thinking those things about yourself is negative and counterproductive, and doesn't lead to change.
3. They're too general and not specific enough - they're not juicy
Most people are making vague and general resolutions like "I'm going to lose weight," "I'm going to get more healthy," "I'm going to be less stressed." All of these are too general, not specific and not measurable. Getting more specific -- "I'm going to lose 25 pounds" or "I'm going to practice yoga twice a week" -- tells the brain exactly what you want to have happen and it's measurable.
But let's face it. The worst part of most resolutions is they just sound so boring. "I'm going to lose weight” or "I'm not going to spend so much money”... They’re boring, not fun, not juicy. That's why they don't work. There's not enough juice to get you going, to get you excited, to get you to take action.
So here's what I recommend: Set the intention to do something - ONE THING - that's going to trip your trigger, rev you up and get you excited.
Really spend some time thinking about what is one thing you could do this year that would really make a difference in your life?
That would really make you happy?
That if you did it, you would look back at the end of the year and think, "Wow! Now that was a productive, amazing year."
It doesn't have to be a huge thing like achieving world peace, but it needs to be something that interests you, that excites you, that would make you think and feel differently about yourself.
The amazing thing is, that if you do something like this, it will make the usual resolutions start to fall into place. For example, let's take something big -- if you decide you want to run a marathon this year, you will accomplish the following resolutions (which happen to be the top resolutions people make). You will...
Get healthier
Stop smoking
Drink less
Probably lose weight
Not feel like a couch potato
Feel less stress
Probably play fewer video games and watch less TV
Probably spend less money on things you don't need
Probably make new friends
And you would do it (at least most of it) feeling happy, excited and jazzed, which, of course, is the real reason behind resolutions in the first place -- to feel happier at the end of 2023 than you did at the beginning.
2022 was a difficult year for so many people. So, it probably won’t take much to have you feel happier at the end of it, so why not really jump in?
What trips your trigger? What gets you revved up? What gets your juices flowing?
Maybe a better question is: What's holding you back? What's preventing you from having the most amazing, incredible, fantastic year of your life?
For most people, the answers are: time, money, my job, my family, my husband, my wife, my kids...
But WHAT IF you didn't allow for those things to hold you back this year?
