Don't Limit Yourself to a New Year's Resolution

​Featured in South Lake Neighbors Magazine January 2018
by Natalie Webster

It’s a New Year and a popular time for change. Though I’m a big proponent of making needed changes in our lives, I’m not a huge fan of New Year’s resolutions.
 
My reasons for not being a fan of New Year’s resolutions are simple. First, each thing you resolve to start or stop doing is probably something you should have started or stopped months ago.
 
Often we contemplate and decide what we are going to change in the New Year during November and December. Whether it’s to quit smoking, quit drinking, or end an unhealthy relationship etc. Many people spend the weeks leading up to the New Year over indulging in the very activities they are swearing off of come January 1st. 
 
If you think about it that doesn’t make a lot of sense.  It’s like deciding you are going to rehab on Monday, so you go on a bender over the weekend. How is that healthy or productive? Doing so does not make the change any easier. It doesn’t take less will power or focus to start or stop doing something because it’s a new year.
 
What if we put our decisions for positive change into action the moment we realize the change needed to be made? If you realize on October 29th that you need to stop smoking because you want to be around for your family latter in life, why wait another two months to make the change?
 
There is no difference between October 29th and January 1st.  There is a social agreement that we make major decisions of change on January 1st. There is also a social acceptance of giving up on these resolutions come February 12th or so.
 
Personally I think we are going to be more likely to make and maintain positive change when we make those changes when we come to the conclusion they need to be made, rather than waiting months or weeks till we turn the page on the calendar.
 
Each day is a new day, same as a new year.  Each hour, each minute, every second has never happened before.  Each is as much of a blank page as a new year is. Like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, we are already wearing the ruby slippers that will take us home. We don’t need to wait to see the Wizard on January 1st to make needed changes.