5 Reasons NOT To Make a New Years Resolution
By: Dallin Larsen
Tags: Lifestyle, New Years Resolutions, Goal Setting, Goals, Personal Development

Its December 31st.

Everyone is talking about all of the events that happened during the past year, in the world and in their personal lives. You start to ponder on the things that happened in your life this past year. Maybe you completed a major life milestone such as graduating college or having your first kid. Or, maybe you look back and there wasn’t anything particularly notable that happened in your life over the last year.

Either way, your mind starts to look forward to the year that is starting tomorrow and you realize that there are things in your life that haven’t been going the way would like them to. Maybe you want to lose weight so that you can fit into your old clothes again. Or, maybe you want a promotion at your job that you have deserved for a while now. Your resolve strengthens and you begin to plan and scheme a way to change the current state of your life so that when December 31st comes next year you can look back and be proud that you had changed your life to be a little bit better than it was a year before.

You set some goals and then January 1st comes. Your resolve starts to weaken as you begin to understand that it is going to be harder to change your life than you thought it would be.

February 1st rolls around and you can’t even remember the goals that you had set a month prior. What happened?…

Of course, this doesn’t happen to everyone but I would argue that the majority of us mean well when we set our new years resolutions, and then they crumble and burn before they had any chance at success because things get in the way like work, family responsibilities, laziness, etc. Today I would like to outline 5 reasons not to set new years resolutions on new years. “But then they wouldn’t be new years resolutions…,” you ask? Exactly. They would be lifestyle goals that are defined at a better time and with a better mind set then new years resolutions. Then your goals would finally have a chance at success.

1. Who Needs the Sun?

The change to the new year occurs just under two weeks from the first day of winter which is the shortest day of sunlight in the entire year. Getting out of bed in the morning is harder because it isn’t light outside. Before we can even sit down for dinner the moon and the stars are out. And to add to all of this its colder outside and sitting down at the TV sounds a lot more appealing than mustering the motivation to go to the gym or to work on that project that you’ve wanted to do since you can remember.

So what is the solution? To not set goals in the exact time of year when they have the lowest chance of success. Maybe set your goals in the spring time when the world is going through a transition from a depressing state to a more hopeful state. Or set your goals in the middle of the summer when the days are long and the world is warm and bright. Most importantly set your goals when you want to set them. There isn’t a rule book saying that any year goal must be set on New Years. You know best what time of year would work best to set your goals, so set goals then.

2. The Holidays Are Over So What Else Can Stress Me Out?

November and December can be some of the most joyful, but also the most stressful months of the year. Holiday parties, gift giving, thank you cards, bank accounts imploding, and many other things can cause stress that wouldn’t otherwise occur during other times of the year. By January 1st most people need a break. So let’s start a new habit because it doesn’t matter that we are burnt out and just want to sleep for a month. That makes sense.

As you can probably tell maybe January isn’t the best time to start working on a new goal that will push you outside your comfort zone. Maybe pick a time that you are in a good mental state and the success for your goal is high. Then when the stressful times of the year come you have already developed the habit and it is easier to maintain.

3. Everyone Else Is Setting Goals…

Just because everyone else in the world is setting a goal at New Years doesn’t mean that you need to as well. You’ve probably heard the saying, “If your friends jumped off a cliff, would you jump too?” It’s the same idea. Every person is different and so naturally the best time to set a goal is different for each person. Maybe setting goals at New Years works really well for you and that’s great! But for a good portion of us it might not be the best time so again, find a time that will allow you the most success at your goals.

4. Its New Years Again

Growing up, my parents had my siblings and I write new years goals on a piece of paper and put them in a Christmas stocking a few days before Christmas. The next year we would pull out the stocking and read the goals we had set the year prior and we would talk about how we did, and then proceed to make new ones for the next year. We were kids and we didn’t have the most thought-out goals, but as I got older and my goals became more specific I would feel kind of bad about myself when we read our goals that we had made a year prior and I didn’t even remember that I had set that goal much less accomplish it.

I’m sure we all have tried to remember what goal we had set last New Years when we are setting a goal for the Next Year. I have found them written down somewhere years later and realized that I still hadn’t achieved the goal. This creates a cycle year after year of not being able to trust yourself to follow through on making your life what you want it to be. Let’s not make New Years a time of beating ourselves up, but of celebration. Set goals when you feel you’ll be successful and celebrate when you accomplish them, don’t allow New Years to be a day of beating yourself up.

5. I’ll Just Wait Until New Years

There are a good portion of us that pride ourselves at being master procrastinators. Why would you do something today if it doesn’t need to get done until next week? “I’ll just wait until New Years,” is an excuse made for months before New Years day.

“I’ll start to lose weight on New Years, it’s the holiday season after all”,

“I don’t want to start remodeling the living room, I’ll just start at the new year.”

“I don’t have time to start learning the Guitar right now, I’ll just start at the new year.”

Can you relate even a little bit? Maybe you’re one of the few people that get everything done a week before it needs to and you can start a habit after deciding the day before. I’m not one of those people. New Years is just an excuse to procrastinate your goals. And then New Years comes and you aren’t as set on committing so you don’t follow through as well. Stop procrastinating your life and start living it now!

Conclusion

The point of writing all of this was not to say ”don’t set goals, goals are dumb”! The point is to suggest that the reason you don’t follow through with your New Years Resolutions is because you are setting them at New Years. It might not be the time of year that will help you be the most successful. Maybe March, July, or even October might be better times to set goals for you. If you have a really good track record setting goals on New Years don’t let me burst your bubble. Keep doing what works for you. If you want to change your life do it when you feel you can be successful and no one said that New Years day is the only day you can start changing your life.