Don’t Do It. Don’t Do it!

By Jamie Kirk

I only have three words related to New Year’s Resolutions: DON’T DO IT.  I think resolutions are a cop out. I think the assigned date of January 1st, is just a guidepost and a guideline to delay actions or activities that we are just putting off and delaying until this prescribed specific date and time.  

If I hear, “New Me, New Year” one more time, I am literally gonna vomit.  Why can’t the “new you” start on March 15, or September 30, why does change have to be dictated by a specific day? When we notice changes need to occur, we should do it immediately and not have wait until the date on the calendar is aligned with our desire to change a behavior.   

For example (and I am going to use a fitness analogy, because it is the most common New Year’s resolution that we make): You want to sign up or renew your gym membership, but the gym is closed, and it reopens 12/31.  You will probably default to thinking: “Darn, oh well, guess I won’t be able to sign up, since they are closed.”

Instead, you need to default to a Plan B, which is thinking about alternatives to the gym being closed. You can sign up at another location, sign up on the phone, or maybe your workplace or school has a way for you to join a gym. But instead we get caught up in what didn’t work at the moment of convenience, and we end up not doing it, because we really don’t want to do it in the first place. Makes sense?

The example is exactly why I don’t support New Year’s resolutions.  We need to live more in the moment. Do things as the “spirit” moves us to do so.  We need to act more and talk less about our intentions. Our lives tend to become ordinary when we place limits (and timeframes) on when to accomplish a desired goal or accomplishment.  

Resolutions compartmentalize us into when we should begin to take control over something that is holding us back or we want to change. When we should live healthily, stop drinking, eat better, etc. should not be fenced in on a ball dropping in Times Square. No one else should have the power to drive a change in our lives. We have the power to start the change, and we have the uncanny ability to take control of our lives at a moment’s notice. Real adults don’t give away their power.  

As you ponder the changes that need to occur in your life, make sure you are driving change that impacts only you. Yes, others may be impacted by your decision, but the ultimate person that has to live with the outcome is you. You can call them resolutions, plans, goals, vision board activities, or maybe even visiting a psychic that outlines what your entire 2019 is going to look like from your previous life you lived 6 million years ago. Doesn’t matter. Just ensure that what you commit to do, you do it, and you do it on your own timeline and your own schedule. Not driven by a date.

You can lose weight, make amends with family members, start a cooking class, enroll in Real Estate school, save for a new car, who knows what it is for you. Just remember that you can dance in the storm, you don’t have to wait for it to stop raining. Stop waiting for the right circumstances.  Stop waiting for the right person to come along. Stop waiting for someone else’s approval.  Stop waiting to start. Stop allowing this short life to pass you by. You can do it now. Wherever you are, right now, you can start, right now, at this very moment.