A very happy new year to everyone!
I began this post just after New Year’s day and decided to write a list of my resolutions. You know, those that won’t be kept past Valentine’s Day.
It’s now a few weeks past and I really haven’t kept any of my resolutions. I’m still eating whatever I want, I haven’t seen the inside of a gym since Thanksgiving, and I’m still “socially” smoking. None of this surprises me.
I think we can all agree that our resolutions are just a bullet point list of ways we’d like to better ourselves. We shoot for the superficial things every year. Most of us don’t really need to stress those things to lead happy lives, but we think we can suddenly be shiny new versions of ourselves once the ball drops. Let’s be honest with ourselves: things don’t change much from December to January. A song I listen to often, articulates this perfectly: “Sometimes the same is different, but mostly, it’s the same.”
On that note, I don’t dispute the benefit of resolutions. However, I think we should stick to small scale changes, and maybe just a general idea of what we’d like to achieve this year. Making work less miserable, getting a little healthier, or just laughing more and popping in some comedy DVDs. Because let’s face it, things are hard to change. I don’t have many years behind me and I already know that. Already, I feel as if I can’t drastically change who I am. That’s a sad thought. And I hope it’s misguided. What I know for sure is that if change is possible, it’s difficult. So whatever things we want to improve, we have to start small. The smaller and easier the idea, the lesser chance of its failure. And I don’t know about you, but I’d rather succeed at many small things, than fail at one big thing.
