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Nay For Resolutions This New Year!

By Becky Barton
Published on: 04:30 PST, Dec 22, 2015

When you stand gathered with friends on New Year’s Eve, impressing them with your list of resolutions for 2016, make sure you aren’t setting yourself up for failure. Some resolutions, after all, are just begging to broken by February. Whether it’s a love interest, a bad habit, or those five pounds you want to lose, telling yourself you’re going to quit obsessing about it is a guaranteed way to keep obsessing about it. This causes most people to give up on their resolutions.

Instead, think of what you can add to your life that will occupy some of the time and energy you devote to your obsession. Here are six resolutions you’d be wise not to make this New Year.

  1. Lose weight. We all set unrealistic weight goals for ourselves because we get caught up in the glamor of the New Year atmosphere. Then, when we fail to meet those goals, we just give up. Try instead to eat healthier and exercise a little more, and let those resolutions be your stepping-stones.
  2. Quit smoking. Very few of us can carry out this feat without the added pressure that comes with our resolutions. However, we expect that to change because it’s a new year, and finding out that it won’t is disheartening. Battling the addiction is too difficult to manage while keeping up with the Jones’ resolutions.
  3. Finding love. Ok, if that were just as easy as going out on a Friday and bringing home a spouse, everyone would have done that by now. Expecting it is that easy now just because the new year genie commands it will lead to frustration, depression and self-esteem issues. The New Year’s Day hang over is enough punishment.
  4. Finding religion. There is no worse reason for finding religion than because a glass of bubbly told you to do so at a crazy New Year party. Religion isn’t about who made the weirdest promise in a state of euphoria; it’s about seeking out something bigger than yourself that makes you feel at peace with the world around you. Unless your friends are champagne whisperers, do not attempt to add religious beliefs to your list of resolutions. And if they are, they should seek a shrink in the new year.
  5. New job. If you are psychic and you can predict each rise and fall of the economy, by all means promise yourself a new, better job. Otherwise, it is inadvisable for you to put this amount of pressure on yourself on New Year’s to move up in the world. The costs of living, inflation, turn-over rates and pay cuts care less than your voicemail box about your resolutions, so don’t leave yourself open to professional ruin.
  6. Having children. This is worse than seeking religion because it’s a new year. There is no other reason to bring a baby into this world than because two people love each other and wish to expand that love and their families with children. Babies change more than everything in your life, and they need more planning than just the first warm, fuzzy moment of the new year. Children test your resolutions, but they should never be a light-headed addition to them.

Keep in mind these are just six of the resolutions that you should consider when making that New Year toast with your friends. You should always strive to better yourself by accomplishing goals you set for yourself. However, you shouldn’t force unrealistic deadlines when the time isn’t right. Those New Year cheers might feel like a great time to take a stand, but you’re better served waiting until you’re more fully committed — mentally, physically, and spiritually. If the goals mean so much to you, then you will stick to them without that list of resolutions. Be the person that others resolve to imitate in the next New Year!

[Photo by Adam Berry/Getty Images]

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