The Juice & the Squeeze

Let’s get this out of the way: most people don’t stick to their New Year’s Resolutions. Statistically, less than half of us who make them keep them after 6 months! 

To be fair, that’s not a terrible number. Just under half of us stick to our stated goals for the New Year, but it’s still under half, which means more than half of us don’t keep our promises to ourselves. Do we suck because we can’t keep our New Year’s Resolutions? 

No! The real issue is a bit more complex than just saying, “We’re terrible and can’t stick to our goals.” Okay, a lot more complex.  

The first issue is with the typical “New Year, new me” reasoning behind these resolutions. We pick something from the last year we didn’t like — we drank too much, we didn’t exercise enough, we didn’t get laid enough, or we got laid too much — and then we say we’re going to do that thing less/more next year. But our habits don’t automatically reset at midnight on January 1st – just our calendars (and calendars are a modern-day, man-made construct and not something biological within us). 

Our habits are complexly psychological and go beyond calendar dates and when we’re trying to make changes to our habits, a compelling motivation is key. When the motivation is “It’s January”, it’s not going to carry much emotional weight come March (or even February for some of us). Change and growth should come from some personal desire to be better, not from the world counting one number higher than it did a year ago. 

The other issue is with the actual resolutions we normally make. They tend to be grand and rather vague, which can be overwhelming, which leads us to throw our hands up and abandon ship. 

Habits start with small, concrete actions. For example, “exercising more” seems much more ethereal and elusive than “walking thirty minutes three times a week”. Similarly, wanting to “be more confident” next year doesn’t really mean anything (and can be quite daunting in practice) but telling ourselves to “not speak negatively” about ourselves does (and is quite achievable). 

Bigger than all this is that you don’t need a new year to make changes. Sure, it’s a nice starting point because it’s an adjustment period for everyone – we all spend a few weeks writing the wrong year and resetting in some ways. 

But if you want to make positive changes in your life, you don’t need a specific calendar date to do it. You can start any time. That’s the dope thing about self-awareness and free will. 

So here’s to just being the best version of you, whatever that means, whenever you want to get around to it. We’re rooting for you!