Resolutions?

For the past few years, I haven’t made resolutions to ring in the new year. Not because I don’t have goals for the year, but because I do. Putting them on a list and calling them “resolutions,” going by my earlier years, doesn’t push me to success. 

I’m not alone. A quick Google search today for “keeping new year’s resolutions” turns up  thousands of articles and blog entries with advice about making and keeping them. Some of the links I found (please note these are only examples; I’m not recommending or endorsing any of these suggestions):

• Gretchen Rubin’s The Happiness Project blog on the Psychology Today website, for example, has numerous suggestions and personal comments regarding resolutions: http://tinyurl.com/yl3jtnq.
• On the eHow website, users post how-to articles about keeping resolutions. “How to Keep Your New Year Resolutions With One Key Word” by WesleyJ has a five-star rating for “the one word you need to think of is: MODERATION!”: http://tinyurl.com/bnr9pp
• The USA.gov website has links for help with 12 specific resolutions -- including “Lose Weight,” “Save Money,” and “Drink Less Alcohol” -- along with one to send a CDC Health-e-Card: http://www.usa.gov/Citizen/Topics/New_Years_Resolutions.shtml

After all, following through on our resolutions is supposed to make us happier and healthier. Lose weight, exercise more, and you will be a better person. That’s true, of course, if your good-to-best scale is calibrated to physical health and if you do need to lose weight and exercise more for medical well-being.

My scale doesn’t work that way -- I stall out on the better-to-best part. It’s such a guilt trap, and when I think about what I would like to accomplish, I can feel it snapping around my ankle. Metaphorically, of course, but it still has sharp teeth that sink themselves into my psyche. And that hold me back.

Because all too often, “best” is elusive and singular, driven by external measurements that are seductive but fickle. Rather than a pinnacle, it can turn out to be a line drawn in the sand, gone when the tide turns because when you were looking back to ensure you were ahead, the game changed. 

What I do like is being eager to take the next step because I am wondering -- in the fullest sense of the word -- what I will discover. Trying something different or a new way on the path to discovery. Challenging myself to experiment, to learn, and to create. 

So no resolutions this year, but guidelines (in the Pirates of the Caribbean sense): I challenge myself to challenge myself. Every day. To go where that challenge leads me.

Even if it means I will exercise more.

Notes: 

• Suggested reading: “Economics focus: New-year irresolution” in The Economist January 2nd print edition. Great article on the whys of procrastination and why we don’t always meet the challenges we face. Online may be for subscribers only: http://tinyurl.com/yhn92y5
• To make the long URLs shorter for posting, I used the website Tiny URL. Voluntary contributions help keep it going: http://tinyurl.com