Why Having the Same New Year's Resolutions as Last Year Doesn't Suck...

bysarazoldan

2.3K followers

10 years ago

The New Year

There is something about the newness, the freshness, the start of a new time period that inspires us to change, to aspire and to grow.

One of the most common ways of expressing above emotion is through 'New Year's Resolutions'. Without going through the whole 'most people have forgotten their resolutions by the time February comes around' shpiel, I will say that most people have forgotten their resolutions by the time February comes around.

Truth be told though, I don't believe it's so much about 'forgetfulness', but more about feelings of dejection and failure for perhaps having missed one part of one resolution. We have this fetish for totally dropping everything once we 'mess up' even a teeny, tiny bit.

But, that is neither here nor there. What I would like to put forward today has more to do with what the resolutions are about rather than how far we go with them.

This Year's Resolutions vs. Last Year's

I encourage you to go back and check your New Year's Resolutions from last year, the year before and even the year before. I'm pretty sure you them filed somewhere on some piece of technology. Look at what you've written down as your goals for the year and compare them to this year's goals. I'm willing to bet that they're pretty similar if not exactly the same!

This can seem depressing. How hard can it be to actually follow through and accomplish what we set out to achieve? Why is it that we feel as if we're constantly doing the same thing we did in previous years, like we're on some kind of circular train ride?

I would, however, like to approach this from a different angle. Consider this: Don't look at the ride as a carousel going round and round endlessly; rather see it as a spiral constantly circling upward.

Our resolutions may very well be those same things that we've been working on since forever, but that's totally ok. We all have strengths and weaknesses; we all have struggles and triumphs. For the most part, we are constantly working on our characters, and that translates into the things we say and do in our lives.

Anger Management and Us

A story is told of a great scholar, a man of integral character, who was known as a most pious, virtuous man. He would often come home from a day at work and before entering the house, he could be heard banging on the wall outside. When asked about the strange custom, he would respond: "I may be upset or angry about things that have happened during the day, but I have no right to bring that anger home with me. Hitting the walls is my way of physically letting go of that anger."

I'm willing to bet that if we got a glimpse of his yearly commitments, each year somewhere on that list would be: 'Work on anger management' or something of the sort. But, herein lies the catch.

Make This Year a Spiral Year

It's perfectly normal and even good to have repetitive goals and aspirations. It means that you truly know yourself and what it is you are looking to achieve. However, rather than be working on the same point each year, we should be aiming to grow in each area. We can still have an overall goal of 'Working on anger management', but this year I can be working on not bringing anger from work home with me and next year I will have surpassed that goal and will be working on not allowing things to influence me to the point of total anger. See that difference?

And this can apply to just about any of our resolutions: Fitness, Health, Being happy, Workplace, Making Money, Travelling, etc...

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this one...