As much as I would like to put myself up on a pedestal and say I am one of the extraordinary ones who never fall foul to the trappings of the new year resolution, I would lying if I did. It is hard. Especially if your resolutions were not fully thought through and meditated upon. Broad brush statements like, “I want to lose weight to get that beach body for the summer.” Ok. Cool. But how do you intend to lose this extra weight? What kind of dietary plans are going to be put in place? How will your work out plans fit in to your everyday work schedule? You see, it requires more than just dreaming of the result. You need to picture the equation as well. This can also be applied to giving up smoking. You can choose to slowly decrease your intake or you could go for gold and go cold turkey. If you know cold turkey is going to be difficult, what is your plan B? The patch? Nicorette gum? Don’t be afraid, being responsible is knowing when to ask for help, so go ahead, book that appointment with your local health nurse. Work that in to your equation.
What’s my story? Well, my conscious decision was made a few months before the bringing in of the new year. “Hello. My name is Divina and I’m a recovering chocolate addict, three months sober.” Yes, I am a sugar fiend. But chocolate did things to me. We had a very tumultuous love hate relationship. I had lots of promises to myself: Monday I’ll stop. First day of the new month I’m definitely going to stop. And a few days I’ll give in, cave in even, and make another promise to start fresh at the start of the coming week. What made me stop finally was being fed up seeing my skin in a condition I was just not happy with. So I thought to myself, is there any logic behind making myself unhappy? Yeah, didn’t think so. That was the day I made a conscious decision to stop. But I didn’t come without planning. I had to think about what I was going to eat instead of the chocolate, what I was going to do when urges set in and how I was going to stay on the train to chocolate-free righteousness.
The result? Reluctantly happiness. Reluctant because I don’t want to be happy about having to sustain deprivation from the one thing that makes my life complete. But happiness at knowing at did it the best way that was comfortable for me and wasn’t trying to stick to an unrealistic goal that was going to make me feel worst about myself if I hadn’t reached it.
Hopefully after reaching the end of this article my logic has shed some light on my new years resolution scepticism. There is nothing wrong with make conscious decisions to change something you are not happy with, as long as you remember to map it out first. As the old saying goes, if you fail to prepare, you’re preparing to fail! You have been warned.
