NEW DAY’S RESOLUTIONS

This time of year, many people spend time reflecting on the year that had passed and changes they want
to make for the year coming up. Typically, people make their new year’s resolutions. Speaking only from
personal experience though, there is an inherent problem with this approach. My resolutions and
conversations with myself are usually based on negativity and self-judgment. Guilt is the primary
motivator for the promises I make to myself about the changes I am sure I will make during every one of
the 365 days looming before me. I have never successfully fulfilled even one resolution I made in this
way. I am no longer willing to heap judgement on myself and feel badly about my failures every day.
This year, the only change I am committed to making is a change in the way I make a change. This year,
I am making “New Day’s Resolutions”.

Every day, I will set an intention for the day – my “new day resolution”. It could be love, kindness,
health, wealth (and not just monetary wealth), travel, getting out of debt, courage, communication, self-
expression, self-care, time, education, gratitude, organization, or any number of other topics which are
important to you. As I declare my intention, I will say it out loud. And my promise then is to take at least
one action that day to further that intention.

For instance, ice cream has often been a challenge for me. So, instead of promising to “cut back on ice
cream or stop eating ice cream” (What????? For a whole year? Automatic failure in my book.), if my
intention for the day is “health”, my action could be “today, I will not have any ice cream.” I can do that,
and it is measurable.

Or, how about “communication” as my day’s intention? Maybe my action item will be to write that
email or make that phone call or to tell someone that I love them. Easy, right? Measurable, right? And
at the end of the day, how much better I will feel rather than mentally cataloguing all the things I did to
sabotage my new year’s resolution. One very well-known organization has as one of their primary
mottos, “Just for Today”. I can do most anything “just for a day”.

Most research shows that an action can become a habit if done for 14 days. So, another idea to choose
only 7 intentions – one for each day of the week. A Monday intention, a Tuesday one and so on. Such as
Kindness Mondays and Get Out of Debt Tuesdays or Gratitude Wednesdays. On Mondays, you could
give a stranger a compliment, or just smile and say “hello.” Tuesday could be the day to take your lunch
to work instead of eating out or for skipping the Starbuck’s coffee. A genuine “thank you” or even a
silent one on Wednesday will fill the bill and fulfill your intention. Before you know it, fulfilling your
intentions will become easy and you will look forward to the end of the day when you get to praise
yourself instead of criticizing.

I am excited about my new approach. I am excited that at the end of each day, instead of a litany of what
I did wrong and what resolution I have already failed at, I need only remember one thing and it will be a
good thing, steeped in a sense of accomplishment. 2019, HERE I COME.