When thinking about this blog and my own thoughts on New Year’s resolutions, I had a mixture of feelings. Why do we set ourselves up for huge amounts of pressure on a particular day? There are 365 days in the year, so why the beginning of the year?
Apparently, New Year’s day is a civil event, created by man-kind. It’s not natures doing, the seasons nor astronomical. So, where did New Year’s resolutions, come from?
Cast yourselves back to 153 B.C.
In Rome to a mythical god called Janus, named after January. With two faces, one looking forward and one looking back. Janus looked backward to the past and forward to the future. He was the god of beginnings, and of endings.
As a god, the Romans believed that Janus could forgive them for their wrongdoings over the past year. On the 31st of December, they would give gifts, and make promises to the god ‘Janus’ for the year ahead. Believing that Janus would bless them all for the forthcoming year.
And this is where the creation of New Year’s resolutions comes from.
Resolutions can be a personal promise to stop eating junk, lose 4 stone, join the gym and go 3 times a week. Others make a promise to get a new life, change their job, even get a divorce.
Familiar, but how realistic do these look?
The pressure you have set yourself on the stroke of midnight. To change yourself or your life overnight is extreme and way too high of an expectation.
Let’s take one of those.
You may have the best intentions to get rid of your 2020 Covid Belly. But there is no way you are going to give up desserts by going cold turkey and never eat another sweet treat again. So, have we set ourselves up for a fall straight away?
The problem with resolutions is they can be so big without any backbone to them. That we flounder around. Feel deprived, and deep down don’t believe we want to or can achieve the resolution/goal.
More details can be found on the Guardian Website (this will open up a new table on another website).
The easiest thing is to hate the idea of resolutions.
But turning a resolution into a goal, with a plan could be the key. Don’t get me wrong. I personally don’t agree that you should wait for a specific day in a year to change or achieve your goals.
What I do believe, is everything is possible with the right plan and the right mindset!
You want to lose weight, for example, great. and it’s that easy, of course, it is not. We know that. but re-think it in your conscious mind and set yourself realistic weekly goals. For example, I’ll have 1 small piece of chocolate a day. Now that’s achievable!
Einstein once said: “If you want to live a happy life tie it to a goal, not to people or objects.”
So the question, love them or hate them?
There is no real answer, everyone is different. But little steps can achieve big goals.