From the blog Bad Language
By Renee Masur
Make a resolution. Don’t make a resolution.
These are the two attitudes that come up like clockwork every time a new year is celebrated. To me, there seems to be two camps of people that verbalize how they feel about the annual word “resolution.” Those who feel that the time has come back around when we can reflect on choices we’ve made and decide upon a new goal to reach, and those that feel that first of January is as significant a day to make a goal as April 13th, November 25th, or any pick of the 365 days we get in a year.
I recently read an article from zenhabits called “The New Rules of Fitness for 2013.” We live most of our lives online; which means that much of the day is spent moving from app, to website, to text, to email. It’s fast, it’s now, and rarely a lengthy process.
Personally, I know that gearing up for a jog is not a habit that will stick with me in the long run (pun delightfully unintended). If you can exercise in a way that works in bursts, just like the way your day moves, that’s a more sustainable way to fit exercise into your life.
Let’s apply this way of goal setting to the everyday. It’s usually expected that New Years resolutions will be dropped.
Not surprisingly, the spikes in the google trends for “resolution” always peak in January.
For some people, it may be a habit to create a beautifully optimistic goal in the New Year only to be dropped by the time Valentine’s chocolates hit the shelves.
Make a goal right now. Just for the day. Hell, maybe even for the next minute. If you create a day full of goal-making, your habits will eventually begin to take over and you won’t know how to stop making goals.
Here are some ideas:
Daily goals
Strike up a conversation with a stranger
Organize that junk drawer
Floss
Call that friend
Make a To-Do List
Hourly goals
Drink 2 glasses of water
Make someone laugh
Walk around somewhere new
Complete this blog post you’ve started
Minute goals
Sprint to the bus/car
Take the stairs over the elevator
Help that person with all the bags
Jump as high as you can to reach that thing hanging just out of your reach
(As you can see these are all spur-of-the-moment and completely situational)
Make you own lists. Surround your life in post-its (I love ‘em) and make every day the first day of your New Year.
