Derailed New Year's Resolutions
Yes, it is a new year once again, and with each New Year's Eve's passing we ponder all those promised resolves to enhance our lives and make us happier, more productive people. I do it. You all do it. I swear I'm going to lose weight, join a gym, talk more-text less, travel more, stay off the computer more, save more-spend less, and on and on with endless resolutions for personal growth and change.
The above photo of me was taken shortly after New Year's Day in 1973. (That's where Just Another Sunday ends.) If you've read my book, you'll notice the shag haircut and coat match the description of Lia Benedict in the last chapter, Chapter 33, which takes place on New Year's Eve of '73. Lia's resolution, that night, was to make it work with Jesse. Yeah sure...like that was gonna happen. Not!
We can promise ourselves many things, but some things are just out of our control. Good intentions are subjected to timing, circumstances and our own personality traits. Lia Benedict's resolutions on that particular New Year's Eve ended in the proverbial toilet after she encountered Vic Somers on that very same night. (But that's a whole other story I'm currently writing)
I'll stick to talking about common resolutions we make on New Year's---like gym memberships...
We may have disposable income to join a gym and go there from time to time because our circumstances, our jobs, and other obligations don't allow us the luxury to spend hours exercising. No biggie, right? But if we make that commitment to an expensive gym membership, specifically as a New Year's promise, we are all gung-ho in the beginning, bound and determined to get our monies' worth, becoming obsessively addicted to fitting in our favorite, now-too-tight jeans while envisioning a fabulous new beach body for summer. Then something happens in our lives that derails the momentum we've built up, and we stop going! Why does that happen? It's infuriating! Why do we we allow the good things we have resolved to do on January 1st of each new year to falter by March 31st?
Our inherent personality traits derail our good intentions, that's why. It's just the way it is.
And so my New Year's resolution on this January 1st is to NOT make any New Year's resolutions. This way I won't disappoint myself in March.
;)
