Your New Year's Resolution is Useless

I hate the gym in January. 

What was once a place of sanctuary and open squat racks becomes an over-crowded cesspool of motivated people working hard. All the good treadmills are taken, and everyone is there trying to “improve themselves.”

The nerve of some people.

Woo! 2015!

But then February gets better. Fewer and fewer people are waiting on benches, and only every other treadmill is taken. And by March, the weight room is blissfully empty again, just like all those promises the ex-gym goers made to themselves on New Years Day.

Why don’t they stick with it?

Because New Year’s resolutions are completely and utterly useless. There, I said it. Think back: what was your New Year’s resolution three years ago? Two years ago? What did you promise to yourself that you would do or change just 12 short months ago? Did you accomplish it?

Do you even remember what it was? I don’t.

People seem to think that a new page on a calendar changes things. That changing the numbers of a date will magically cause motivation and determination. But the fact is, when that NYE ball drops and 2015 is rung in, nothing has changed. You’re still the same person you were 10 seconds ago.

The universe hasn’t adapted to the arbitrary number system we’ve assigned to days and nights in order to make things better.

It's too busy, like, expanding and stuff.

And even if you truly do decide to make a change for the better for the next year, know that motivation fades. Quickly. Especially when you think about the difficulty of keeping this up for a whole year! As time goes by, most people slip back into their old ways and old habits until they forget what they were even trying to accomplish.

The Alternative Solution

If you want to make a real change in your life, that change has to happen within yourself, and it has to happen every second of every day of every year.

Instead of New Year’s Resolutions, make a New Day’s Resolution. Decide that, if only for today, you will do your absolute best. Then tomorrow, make another New Day’s Resolution. No more waiting around for January 1^st to make a positive change. Each sunrise is a chance to get it right.

Good morning!!

My Challenge to You

Whatever it is you want to change (maybe a habit you want to break, your attitude at work, or how much time you spend with your family), change it today. Not only that, but write it down. Get a pen right now, and write your goal for the day down.

At the end of the day, go back and put a checkmark next to the goal if you accomplished it. Then email me or comment on Facebook telling me you did it.

And tomorrow, do the same thing.

Long-term goals are important, but unless you take every day as a small goal unto itself, your long-term goals will never see the light of day.

Happy New Day!

Lift. Eat. Love. Repeat.