New Year resolutions
It is that time of the year again when we make promises to ourselves and hope to keep them for the rest of the year. But like most things in life, events have a way of shaping everything. In this case, there is an assuredly eventful year ahead to gently ease us out of our resolutions. With years of such broken resolutions, most of us resolve to not have any New Year resolutions. Nice cop out from commitment in a way. There has to be a better way.
I was a serial resolution breaker until about 5 years ago. Every year since then, I have made resolutions that I have stuck to. Not just for that year, but since then until today. Here is how the tide changed for me-
- Make one and only one resolution every year. Even if you think that you don't need one, come up with something. If nothing else, it is good to give your will power the occasional workout.
- Make a resolution that is easy enough to keep for a few months but challenging enough to eventually make you work for it. Otherwise, what is the point of the exercise?
- Talk about it to your inner circle of family and friends. Let them help you in your cause by being your moral police when temptation is at the doorstep. With the abundance of social networks today, why not put them to work for you?. Share your resolution to an appropriate audience so it is out there in public. No hiding from it and committing yourself to public shaming if you fail.
- Make it count and make sure you share your success story. Nothing beats the thrill of success like basking in the glory of it.
- Finally and most importantly, learn to enjoy the challenge. One of my turning points came when I started relishing the challenge of controlling my specific urges and exerting my will power. The more I restrained myself, the more I felt a sense of achievement.