Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
This forum is in permanent archive mode. Our new active community can be found here.
New Years Resolutions
On the first of every new year, people of many cultures around the go through the tradition of making arbitrary goals for themselves in an effort to better themselves.
Do you practice this tradition? If so, what are your resolutions? If no, Why not?
For the most part, I don't because I have a chicken memory and thus can never fulfill my resolutions. However, It's always a goal of mine to lose weight and develop more meaningful relationships with people.
Do you practice this tradition? If so, what are your resolutions? If no, Why not?
For the most part, I don't because I have a chicken memory and thus can never fulfill my resolutions. However, It's always a goal of mine to lose weight and develop more meaningful relationships with people.
Comments
Also, a while back I resolved to be more physically active, which started really well by joining a gym, but after I got a more physically demanding job, the gym fell by the wayside. For this year, I'm going back to the gym, and cranking it up a notch, so to speak. Hell, I might even start playing cricket or rugby again, who knows?
That and eat less and work out more :-p Both no formal resolutions. (I was already doing this before the holidays I just have to get back on the wagon ;-p
If nothing else, I want to enjoy the rest of the school year with the people I'm gonna be missing tons at college.
Any ever kept a new years resolution for a full year? I did a few times.
2002: Don't sleep in a bed for an entire year. I'd give myself a half point for this one. I did sleep in a bed for a few nights, but never alone, so I re-wrote the resolution a few months in to be "Don't sleep in a bed for the whole year, except when a young lady is with you, as it would be counterproductive to try to convince her to sleep on the floor."
2003: No alcohol for an entire year. I made this resolution after looking back over a period of a month and a half and not finding a single day I didn't have at least one drink. Since the end of 2004 I've not been that good at drinking.
2003: Also made a resolution to create and perform six new juggling acts by December. It was this resolution that made me put much more work into my juggling, and by the end of the year I had quit my day job.
Before that, though, every year was the same resolution: Learn an instrument and get in shape.
For this year, my plan is to figure out what job I want to do after college and write an entry on my blog every day. I'm not writing in search of fans or views, I just find writing to be therapeutic, but something I don't do enough (just like what reading was last year).
Since whenever I want to make a change, I just do it immediately, I don't need to resolve anything.
For an individual person, a resolution is kind of silly. You don't need a declaration. You should have 100% complete control of yourself. Assuming you have the will power, you should be able to change yourself instantly. If you have a new year's resolution to spend less time uselessly browsing the web, you don't need a resolution. Just stop it. In the middle of last year I decided to do just that. One day I was wasting hours with google reader. The next day I didn't visit it, even once. It's that easy. If you are weak willed, resolutions aren't going to help you, since you don't have complete control of yourself to begin with.
2) Read more. I have a stack of books that I KNOW I will like. For the past two months or so, I haven't read nearly enough. Time to get back into the groove.
3) Get rid of cable TV. As it stands now, we don't watch much TV. It's a lot of wasted money for us. My mother-in-law is visiting in February. She'll be home alone during the day while we're at work. Once her visit is over, we're canceling cable.
Common New Years resolutions like quitting smoking and losing weight are for the weak willed. Anyone who is serious about doing either should be striving to do them year round, making the decision and change ASAP...and I doubt many of those people really make that decision on January 1.
Pete's Bitter Black Existence. A Russian Imperial Stout, probably with notes of bitter chocolate, licorice, and espresso, and a pronounced bitter hoppiness. It will happen.
I have been working on several goals for the past months/years. When I don't complete them, I do not have the convenient "it was only a NYR and EVERYONE breaks them" attitude, I actually feel stupid or I realize that the goal is not worth it and stop thinking about it.
Being a better you or accomplishing what you want to should be a CONSTANT daily exercise, not a silly once-per-year occurrence.
EDIT; Where I differ from Scott is in the belief that people can instantly change habits and second natures. This takes time, but it really only takes vigilance until new habits are learned. One of the easiest ways to get rid of a bad habit it to keep a little notebook in your pocket and tally off each time you do it per day, then when you start doing it less you make tallys per week, then per month. When you go a month or two without a tally, you usually don't need the notebook anymore. To create a new habit, keep track using tallys, but also build in a reward system for yourself (if you do the activity X # of times or spend X hours per day doing the activity, then you treat yourself to something (preferably not food - that is just weird). For example, I used to wait until the last minute to write papers, they were always good, but they could have been better. For every week or day (depending on the time limit from assignment) I started and worked on the paper before the due date, I would schedule a massage at the campus wellness center ($5 bucks per trip). Eventually I didn't even keep track, I just got a massage twice a month and kept up with my papers.