New Year’s Resolutions Are Overrated

As a counselor, you would not believe how many times I hear about New Year’s Resolutions. They are most frequently made about things like diet, exercise, and saving money, but the possibilities are endless.

I find myself having very little faith in New Year’s Resolutions alone to actually change anything in a person’s life.

While there are exceptions, I have found that most people start building up January 1st as a big transformative day months in advance, find the courage to stop or start their behavior resolution, and then inevitably slip up, crash and burn, and refrain from trying again until next year.

Friends I have in the gym business say that January 1st is the biggest day of the year for new memberships, followed by a sharp decline in attendance throughout the rest of the month.

My issue with these resolutions is that failure is very common and having this significant start date for a resolution just leads to increased self-loathing, disappointment, and despair.

Who cares if you fail on January 7th? Now the new start date is January 7 th - start again.

You went 7 days without eating Oreos! Excellent! Now try for 10 days.

One of the most important virtues is hope, and Christ wants us to remember this virtue when we fall. We need to always have hope for ourselves and continuously get up to try again when we fall. My other issue with these resolutions is that we should be setting these goals constantly throughout the year. January 1st and Lent aren’t the only times we should be practicing sacrifice, generosity, and almsgiving.

This week, consider praying about your goals for self-improvement and remember that the process is lifelong, not restricted to January 1st.