Commitments to Yourself

Those commitments to yourself

A new year with the things you said you were going to do

But how do we keep up? We’ve all lied to ourselves in the past, and if you haven’t you’re lying. Is there a point to making a resolution if we can’t keep up with it? Yes, it gives short term satisfaction, but failure will cause bruised egos and return you to emotional neutrality. What’s the point?… Why even try?… Who cares?

Believing in a better you

Some may believe in resolutions, and some may not. Some dread the waves of new gym-goers, and others jump with joy at all the money they get riding the personal development industry’s coattails. But everyone can dream, and everyone recognizes attempts at self-improvement to be admirable. Whether your reincarnated or not, there will only be the one you… it’s worth it to make the best of it. Cause all those self-defeating questions that were asked earlier, could be applied to reasons why you shouldn’t improve. It’s all in your perspective. Regardless of your path, there are ways to increase the likelihood of following through on your chances of being a better you.

One is the magic number

Improving in one way is easier than improving in five ways. Focusing on one change, since changes don’t happen in a vacuum. With one, you can be partially serious about working the change into your life. Recognize the weight of your commitment and treat it with respect as it will entail sacrifice on your part. You can’t fit 30 hours of improvements into a 24 hour day. A resolution is a double edge sword. When you spend 1 hour working out, you lose 1 hour of TV time. That 1 hour you want to spend writing will mean 1 less hour of social media. Time doesn’t accommodate itself to your wishes. You fit your wishes into time. One is a number that easily fits into things.

But don’t forget about all those other numbers

Numbers are great because we can count them. Counting is easy, and it’s obvious when we can't count to the number you were supposed to. You don’t want to make more money, you want to earn at least $100,000 in income. You don’t want to eat better, you want to limit your caloric intake to 2500. You don’t want to travel, you want to visit 5 different cities that are more than 5000 miles away. You want to know if you're keeping up, yet it's hard to keep up with the abstract. Numbers aren’t abstract. They are what separate the childish wishes from the grown-up goals.

Third Party bullshit detectors

If we didn’t want to be better, we wouldn’t be making all these resolutions. I can tell you that I am the greatest person ever, but you would tell me that I’m biased. We are way too easy on ourselves, so why would we trust ourselves with something as important as a resolution? Well obviously because they aren’t important. Getting a second, third, and fourth-party to call us on our bullshit makes us less likely to spew bullshit. Accountability partners will go a long way, leaving us to answer to more than ourselves. Because if we were so great as to believe in ourselves, we wouldn’t be putting ourselves in a position where we need to make silly resolutions.

Stop making it seem so damn miserable

It’s all about the small wins. The mind and body can’t handle large shocks to the system. So you want to exercise? Who said you needed to go to the gym and sweat your face off to the screams of a personal trainer. Turn up some music and go for a 45-minute speed walk. After you get used to that see if you can jog for 20% of that time. Then 50% of that time. Contrary to popular belief, making yourself more and more miserable is not the clearest sign of self-improvement. It's about being better than you used to be. Trying to introduce large scale changes to your current behavior will only increase your likelihood of failing. If you were serious about your resolution, then you would know that you at least have the rest of your life to properly implement it. If you don’t build the steps to the platform, you’ll never stand atop it.

Creating a path

A resolution is something that should be with you for the rest of your life. It’ll take more than a day of planning. And the dedication will need to be based on more than a planetary revolution reset for it to be sustainable. This is your life, and you were the one that decided to improve it. Whether it was born out of desperation, dissatisfaction, or boredom. Plan it on your calendar. Plan for the dates you want to review your progress. Plan your rewards for following through. Plan punishments for failings. Plan your contingencies. Plan how you’ll react if you succeed or fail. Plan to take your resolutions seriously.

Or don’t, the world will keep revolving either way…