5 Musings on New Year's Resolutions

It's almost impossible not to feel a cocktail of emotion around the holidays. And, if you're like me, "the holidays" includes New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.

Being of the Earthy type, I often find myself planning and making goals around the Winter Solstice. But I also feel the excitement ramping up towards to the new Roman calendar year, especially with all of the "IT'S YOUR LAST CHANCE TO [verb phrase] THIS YEAR!!" and "GET READY TO [verb phrase] IN 2015!!" going around towards the end of December.

In honor of this time of year, I present to you 5 musings regarding the ritual of creating New Year's resolutions:

1) It takes about 66 days to form a new habit. So guess what? If you're still not feeling like you're fully committed to a habit by Valentine's Day (the point at which many people give up on their resolutions), you're only 45 days into your effort. You won't have given yourself a chance to form a habit unless you push yourself to do the thing it is you want to do through the first week in March.

2) "Getting healthy" is not a goal. "Writing more" is not a goal. Goals are measurable. They have a date of accomplishment (or many dates if they goal requires several steps). In order to achieve your goals, you need an action plan and time constraints. Without these elements, it's not a goal, is a wish.

3) Setting goals that require sacrifice and discipline is not meant to be a deprecating practice. Sacrifice and discipline not only help in getting to where you want to be, they also make for sweeter rewards when you finally achieve your goals. Not only did you grab that brass ring, but you proved to yourself that you could make sometimes difficult choices in order to reach it.

4) Not having New Year's resolutions is perfectly acceptable. I use the new year as inspiration to infuse some energy into waning habits and goals, but I am constantly re-evaluating my personal and professional life, figuring out if whether what I am currently doing is helping or hurting, and then making new goals and actions plans to achieve the things I want for myself and my family. The time of year is irrelevant.

5) If you've achieved a New Year's resolution for an entire calendar year, celebrate!! How many times do we hear of resolutions being abandoned prematurely? And how many times do we hear about success stories? Celebrate your accomplishments, no matter how small they may seem to you. Little successes demonstrate that you have what it takes to change your life in a positive way.

To inspire fellow readers (and this author), if you have ever achieved a New Year's resolution, tell us about it in the comments below.

Enjoy the holidays and have a wonderful start to the new year!