I recently read a great post by Melissa Joy Kong looking at the hard truth behind our new years resolutions.
I as much as anybody am guilty of reeling out a new list of resolutions year on year with little thought for the actual work that will have to go into making them a reality.
Melissa writes:
It’s easy to make resolutions. This is the fun part: dreaming about what’s possible. Imagining a better, brighter, happier, healthier, wealthier future in 364 days.
But the question lurking in the back of everyone’s mind right now regarding their personal resolutions is: Can I really do this?
I believe she hits upon an important point here. Of all the resolutions people have told me in person, or I’ve read about online, in the back of the mind of every single person would have been a glimmer of self-doubt, that seemingly vague possibility (yet still, a possibility) of failure.
I believe I’m very lucky in that I have an unlimited amount of self-belief. Don’t ask me where I found it or how it came about, it has just stuck over the years. Despite this, I still feel this twinge of “Can I really do this?” whenever I set an over-the-top goal for myself.
Last year I was convinced I would achieve it all of my goals (as we all are at the start of the year). From creating a £1,000 ($1,600) per month lifestyle business, to moving across the Atlantic to New York City, I had no doubt I’d make them all a reality.
At least that’s what I said. But I had self-doubts, of course I did. I knew how ambitious my plan was.
These resolutions work because they ignore the day-to-day grind that goes into making them come true. Commit yourself to your resolutions and work on them day-in-day-out. Melissa goes on to write that, far from all the bells and whistles (and who doesn’t enjoy those) you have to expect the inevitable hard days along the way and prepare accordingly. She writes:
Embrace the challenging moments – they are lessons in disguise. Learn the lessons you must learn, and then continue to move on with making your resolutions happen.
There’s a huge degree of separation between being optimistic and being disillusioned. Don’t stray towards the latter. Come up with your wild crazy goals, move towards them, yet constantly be checking and making yourself aware of the hard times that will no doubt come with them.
Yesterday I woke at 3:45am, jumped out of bed with the most enthusiasm I’ve felt in weeks and started what turned into a twenty-hour work session, from my lounge, on something I truly enjoy and believe in. I’m not saying this to show off (one of my resolutions this year is actually to sleep more), but the enthusiasm speaks for itself.
This morning I woke at 6am after five hours of sleep so I could write this post and push it out before most of you got out of bed. Once edited I’ll shower, eat breakfast, then get straight back to work.
These are the good times. Embrace them. A hard rain’s a-gonna fall. There is no failure in packing accordingly.
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