The Value in Resolutions

It’s that time of year again…the time of year where we ponder what our New Year’s Resolution is going to be… STOP! This year has been a year of realizations for me and in the midst of all these realizations, I’ve come to learn that change is not necessarily effective unless it is change that you value (this is self-realized and doesn’t come from any sort of public research or opinion). What I mean by this is that it is important to know yourself and know what you value before setting out to achieve or change something in your life.

Why is this important? Think about the past few years. Now I can’t speak for everyone, but I know I’m not alone when reflecting on the many resolutions I’ve made and not kept over the past few years or decades. Weight loss, exercise, write more, eat better, be a better person—some of these I’ve actually pushed forward for quite a while. The problem with a lot of our resolutions is that we do them because we believe they are what we should be doing versus thinking about what we value and why we should do these things.

Think about weightloss or exercise since these are pretty common. How many times have you gone out to a restaurant and eaten a salad because that is what you should be doing? Many, I bet (if you are anything like me). But what if you started approaching the situation differently? What if you started telling yourself that you were eating the salad because in the end, it was going to make you feel and look better and these things were really important to you? What if writing mean you were taking steps toward a life-long dream and that you might have the chance of finding true happiness doing something you love? As silly and small as these changes of thought might seem, they also may change how you approach these resolutions that were things you simply should do and not really connected to something important to you. I’m not saying this will resolve everything but it has certainly been a step in the right direction for me.

Good luck writing this week and thanks for joining me!

Filed under: romance, Toni Kelly, Writer's Life