2014 begins on a Wednesday. That means you’ll start the week in one year and end it in another. Presuming you’re taking the day off on the 1st, your fresh new year will start on a Thursday. But Thursday’s practically Friday and it’s crazy to start something new on a Friday, so you’ll probably get around to really starting over again on Monday, the 6th.
My point is that while the New Year is symbolic of newness and starting over, it’s really just Wednesday. It’s the middle of the week and another day in your life. Your circumstances won’t really change just by the sheer circumstance of needing to get a new day planner. You start 2014 with everything you had in 2013 – your troubles and your triumphs.
Don’t think, however, that I’m telling you not to make changes in the New Year. I’m telling you not to make changes because it’s a new year.
Ninety percent of New Year’s resolutions fail. They fail for a lot of reasons, but one of the underlying reasons why so few of them work is that New Year’s resolutions are inherently bogus. We make them because it’s New Years, not because we’re fully prepared and dedicated to see those changes through.
And say, for example, that your New Year’s resolution is a change you’ve been thinking about for a long time. Why did you wait until the New Year? By waiting until January 1st and holding off on making an important change you’ve basically already decided that that change is something you can put off. So why not keep putting it off well into 2014? That’s what happens to New Year’s resolutions. They’re either arbitrary and made for the sake of simply having a resolution, or they’re things we truly do want but have already trained ourselves to put off and live without.
So this year don’t make a New Year’s resolution. Don’t make a grand proclamation as the ball begins to drop. If you want to make a change in your life, make that change. Just start. You can start in January or you can start in July. Don’t make promises. Don’t make a list. Just begin.
This year resolve to skip making resolutions and start making actual changes.