Happy new year! 🎉
I’ve already received 3 newsletters/marketing emails from other people that have snarkily been like, “aren’t you sick of people telling you happy new year already?!”
No, I’m not!
We’re literally not even a week into it. If someone’s already sick of 2020, that’s on them.
Don’t bring me into that negativity, tyvm!
What’s with all the resolution baggage these days?
The past few years, I’ve noticed a serious “anti-resolution” trend.
Lots of absolute, extreme claims about how they “never” work, are “nothing but” self-sabotage, etc. etc. etc.
To me, that’s all baggage from people’s negative perceptions about New Year’s resolutions.
Because listen.
You know I’m the most “good for them, not for you” person ever.
If you don’t want to set resolutions, or you don’t want to associate that word with your goals, that’s fine.
I don’t necessarily call my goals, ‘resolutions,’ either! But I don’t deny that that’s what they are. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
Take the New Years Resolution Back to Basics
Because if you strip away all of our baggage around the word resolution, here’s what it means:
My goals this year are firm decisions, and I’m determined about them.
By definition, I have resolved to do them.
By definition, they are resolutions.
So when people say things like “don’t set resolutions, set goals,” or “don’t set resolutions, set intentions” or whatever they suggest instead, when you break them all down, they’re all synonyms.
It doesn’t matter what you call the direction you’re moving in. What matters is that you have one.
Drop Your Mindset Blocks Around All This
This brings me to the point about “resolutions never work.”
Now look.
I’m not gonna pretend I’m perfect and meet all the goals or resolutions I set.
(My annual reviews of 2017, 2018, and 2019 are there to prove me wrong.)
But I’ve been setting resolutions most years since I was a preteen.
Some years I meet them, some years I don’t. It’s about half and half. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
But here’s what I know:
- I meet my resolutions often enough to know that saying they “never work” is an exaggeration.
- When I don’t meet my resolutions, it’s not because I called them resolutions.
- Even when I set a resolution and don’t meet it, I made more progress than in the years I didn’t set one at all.
So we can all just chill with the resolution shaming and debate, shed the resolution baggage, and just focus on making sure we’re moving in the right direction all year?
Kthxbi! 🙃
If you liked this one, you’ll love:
- The Privilege of Minimalism: Who Gets to Be a Minimalist?
- What is Working Brighter (and Why Isn’t Working Smarter Enough)?
- Performative Productivity (or Why I Post Boring To-Do Lists on Instagram)
