Well, it's New Year's Eve and everyone is getting dolled up, downing champagne and celebrating until the ball drops at midnight. Some may even be lucky enough to have give someone their first kiss in the new year too.NYE is also the time where we sit and rack our brains for a resolution -- a commitment we make to ourselves to change either physically, mentally or emotionally. More often than not, the resolutions involve losing weight, saving money, getting a better job, quitting smoking and the list is ongoing.
The only problem is that we stay true to those resolutions for a few weeks or months, and go back to our normal ways.
A perfect example is my dad has been going to the gym for a while. The days following our dawn into the new year, the gym is packed. He can't even stand the gym during those few weeks, yes weeks. Within a few weeks, the crew of gym rats slims down to the same people he has run into at the gym for the past couple years.
The problem with making a New Year's resolution is that we think that all of the sudden our personality will change with the drop of a ball. The fact that a new year offers a sort of "clean slate" and this year will be different puts pressure on people to look for changes they need to make to themselves.If your resolution is to lose weight, you have probably wanted to lose weight for a while and just haven't bitten the bullet and sweated it out yet. If you want want to stop spending and save money, Christmas wasn't the start of your excessive spending. If you wanted to quit smoking, you would have already tried to.
The fact of the matter is a new year does not automatically mean a new mentality. You have to truly want to change something about yourself to make it happen, and a new day will not make that happen. Using the new year as a timeline for a goal, especially a weight loss goal, works but a new year will not make the goal happen. A new mentality will, and a new mentality will make the day seem new.
Happy 2011!
xoxo Nickie
