New Year’s Resolutions? It’s a conundrum

Sherri Gardner HowellFarragut

For a decisive, confident woman, I can sometimes be perplexing. New Year’s resolutions bring out my enigmatic tendencies.

Here’s why: While I love new beginnings and any excuse to turn the page of the book and start with a clean slate, I hate New Year’s resolutions. They are almost always focused on something negative about one’s personality or looks that needs changing. And we “resolve” to fix it.

The stats are stacked against us. Four out of five people break their resolutions and a third don’t make it until the end of January.

Then comes the guilt, the feelings of failure. It’s all a soul-sucking pit of disappointment.

But here I am still longing for a positive way to embrace the new beginnings that a new year can bring with it. For the past several years I decided I would just make one resolution. Surely if there is just one…

It didn’t help. I always aim high. My one didn’t make it through March.

One of my dearest friends is a firm believer in New Year resolutions. She not only makes them and tries her best to keep them, she does them in categories: health, spiritual, career, etc. I give her a hard time every year when she starts her reflections and begins her list.

Tonight at dinner with her, however, it dawned on me that what she is actually doing isn’t so much picking a negative trait and vowing to change it as it is starting the year with a positive outlook. The things on her list will make her happier, but they are more purposeful than resolutions. She has a list of things to focus on that will make 2018 a good year for her.

I like that, but I’m still not making a list. Or maybe I will. I could do three – my lucky number – and they can be more esoteric than “get more exercise.” I can resolve to get a new look, get more sleep and organize my desk.

But then, when I don’t, well, we really are back where we started, aren’t we?

I think I may have a solution to my dilemma, however. In the spirit of embracing a new start, a clean page to write my 2018 story on, I will make my resolutions. I will not put them in my phone or on my computer. I will return to my roots and write them down on a piece of nice stationary and put the list somewhere safe.

By March 1, I won’t remember what they were, and I will have no clue where the list is.

Problem solved. Happy New Year!

 

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