It’s a brand new year and people every where are busily going about their New Year’s resolutions. They are going to the gym, attending church, being nicer to mom and building budgets.
It’s the same thing every year and we’re all really great at it for the first three weeks for January. After that, most of us start falling back into our old patterns and before we know it, it’s November and we’re wondering what happened to all our carefully laid plans.
I was a card-carrying eye roller. If there was something to be cynical about, I was your girl.
I was a card-carrying eye roller. If there was something to be cynical about, I was your girl. Resolutions were no exception to that rule. Nary a day would pass by without some kind of easy pickings crossing my path – some bouncy-stepped New Year’s Born Again on their way to the gym or with a cart full of vegetables, naturally – and I’d have my snide remark and sidelong glance ready for my companion.
I figured that I knew the truth. I thought I was smart. I believed that I’d likely just fail so why even try? But that was crap. In truth, I wasn’t blessed with a better understanding about “How the World Works” than other people. I was just afraid.
In truth, I wasn’t blessed with a better understanding about “How the World Works” than other people. I was just afraid.
I was afraid of putting myself out there again after being knocked down a few times too many (Will I have the strength to get back up if everything falls apart?). I was afraid of letting people know that I care about some goal in my life (What if I fail and they think I’m a screw-up?). But mostly, I’m afraid of being seen – with all my flaws – and rejected (What if people get to know me and don’t actually like me?).
The heart of the matter was that I didn’t want to feel that way about myself. My fears about other people were really just reflections of my own insecurities. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure there are a few people out there that think I’m a bummyhead but they don’t matter. I matter and I am missing out.
I want to change the way I look at resolutions and I want you to do the same. Optimism is always better than cynicism.
It’s time to change that and 2016 is the year to do it. I want to change the way I look at resolutions and I want you to do the same. Optimism is always better than cynicism. While it’s true that 95 % of people fail at them, there are those 5% that do succeed and change their lives. Besides that, there is something curiously hopeful about people failing every year and still going out next year to to try again. I think I like that.
I don’t care that it’s an arbitrary day that people embrace as THE day to change. Doesn’t matter. What matters is that people are trying to change, whether it’s on January 1st or September 9th. It’s about believing that you can be better than you are and who doesn’t need a little bit more of that in their lives?
So this year, my first priority is to be hopeful and embrace all change – or non-change. Both are great and there’s no time like the present to start the next step. So my very first resolution for 2016 is to make resolutions. I hope you make some too. Cynicism has no place here today.
Check out Monday’s post for my 2016 New Year’s Resolutions!
