What’s that thing about New Year’s resolutions?

Some people say they are useless, if you want to change something you can do that anytime of the year, the 1st of January is a day like any other.

They are right, of course. Every day is a new part of your life. One day is like the smallest unit we use to divide our lives – which does not mean that not any second, minute and hour counts, but these measurements are probably too small for anything like resolutions. The next step would be one week and when it comes to resolutions, it’s mainly Mondays we choose to start something new. And after a week, we have divided our time into months. Now that’s a bigger step, don’t you think? We only have 12 of those in one year (as opposed to 52 weeks or 365 days), so choosing a month is an even bigger thing. If we mess it up we have to wait about 30 days for a new month to come, so the pressure is on.

And here we are at the start of a new year – that’s huge! For a new year we choose to change the things that are really hard, try to get rid of our worst habits: We want to give up the cigarettes, we want to lose weight, we promise ourselves to start exercising – and we want to do it all at once, because a new year means the beginning of a longer time span, in which we are really able to achieve something. If we manage to not smoke for a year, not to overeat for 12 months or exercise regularly for 365 days we will see a result before the beginning of the next one.

And this is the reason why so many of us fail in sticking to their New Year’s resolutions: Because we choose the big things to change at the start of the new year, it takes a good while until we start seeing the results. When we try to quit smoking we cannot be sure we are really over our addiction until a few months have passed. Losing weight doesn’t happen in a few days, it’s a process that requires discipline over a long time. Exercising will only make us feel fitter if we stick to it on a regular basis, putting on your trainers 3 times a week until the end of January isn’t the point, it’s still doing it in May and afterwards.

So it’s all about discipline in the long run, that’s what makes our resolutions a success or failure. We have to find a day to start, and yes, it could be any day, but the 1st of January is a special one for us celebrating it as the start of the new year. And making resolutions is the start to changing your life and becoming what you want to become – and we all have the ability to do just that.

So do you have any resolutions for 2010? Is there something you want to start working on from next Friday and stick to it for the next 12 months?

I share mine with thousands of people: For me it’s finally quitting smoking for good. Don’t worry, I am not going to bore you with this, because if you don’t smoke and never have you have no idea what that really means, if you have quit in the past you know all about it anyway and if you do smoke and don’t intend to quit you don’t want to read about it – it just makes you light up the next one even faster.

If you have a resolution for 2010 just remember: A year from now you wish you had started today!

I wish all of you a good 2010, lots of happy times and that you have the strength and discipline to stick to your resolutions!