Tuesday, January 1, 2008

A Humilating New Year's Resolution

Youth is when you're allowed to stay up late on New Year's Eve. Middle age is when you're forced to. Then it comes down to us older folks who go to bed before midnight as I did last night. But it was not before thinking about whether I should jot down a New Year’s resolution or two on the pad on the night table.

During the last few years I gave up on resolutions and began to look forward to the New Year for a new start on my old habits. Maybe this year I could muster the courage and fortitude to take on a promise to myself without winding up admitting a humiliating defeat shortly thereafter. Broken resolutions chip away at self esteem.

I’m in grand company for we all know that people fall short of their New Year's Resolution -- and it might just be because they aren't serious enough about them. Here are some interesting figures I culled this morning still deciding on a resolution. It makes me feel a bit better about my failures. But also adds perspective to the ominous difficulty of following through.

According to a consulting group survey, more than 51 percent of folks made a resolution in 2007 year, but only nine percent are "actively doing something about it."

That means I have a less than a 10% chance of keeping a resolution.

Excuses after excuses . . . the other 91 percent say some issue -- or excuse -- came in their way of achieving their goal. For instance, 33 percent say procrastinating was their biggest obstacle while 24 percent say they lack the discipline needed to succeed.

Also, 10 percent of the resolution losers blamed their failure on having to "do it alone."

The biggest problems people sought to fix last year -- and failed at -- are financial stability and losing weight. Both are difficult to achieve, but are certainly honorable promises to ones self. But they are long term requiring constant discipline.

Now here is a resolution that might work for me. It sounds so challenging, too. It seems that 78-year old Garth Gaskey plunged into Lake Michigan for 56th time on New Year's Day. Yes, difficult, but to be able to congratulate yourself all year for a 5-minute act is s great resolutional short cut. Thought some would say it doesn't seem in the spirit of the traditional resolution process.

But still it does have an appealing possibility . . . a quick solution so to speak. I would seriously consider that except that I’m not very near a body of water, and I really don’t have the time for a long drive, and I have not yet had my flu shot, and I worry about catching cold and missing work, and I’m not certain I have a bathing suit that fits, and doesn’t common sense say that one shouldn’t jump into the freezing water in the middle of winter?

So my New Year's resolution is to think about an outstanding resolution for next year. I am fairly certain I can be successful at that. Putting a year's thought into it should make a quality one, too

Happy New Year everyone!

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Posted by Ed McCormick at 1:42 PM 0 comments

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