Almighty Dad | A stay at home dad blog

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I have a theory about resolutions.  But first, to be clear, I don’t like resolutions even though I repeatedly make them.  Resolutions are preemptive failure admissions.  The declaration of a resolution is, many more times than not, really just an announcement concerning the thing you’re about to fail.  And guess what I do every year? I fail at my resolution to not make resolutions! I can’t help myself.  Every year I say, “Resolutions are for suckers! I’m not making any!” (Which is of course a resolution itself) – instant failure.  However, I really do have real goals, and I really do strive for self improvement, and setting a deadline of a year for said improvement seems pretty convenient – or so I convince myself at the start of the year.  After all, if I set myself a deadline I’d be ashamed to miss it.  That’s called a negative motivator.  Every year, then, I am reminded of the things I have not done, and then I determine to straighten up and fix these failures with resolutions which effectively compounds my past failure by adding another one on top (The inevitable missed deadline).  Deadlines aren’t bad, necessarily, but don’t ever set a deadline without also setting intermediate deadlines.  That’s the trick to resolution making.  Don’t jump in without a real, well thought out plan or you’ll be sorry!

The Art of Resolutions:

Resolutions fail because people (Myself included) get stuck thinking of only the big picture.  I say, “I want to learn another language so I’m going to study hard and learn this language by the end of the year.”  That, friends, is not the right approach because the task is too big to see clearly.  I should have made a real plan for success with steps that are digestible and undaunting. Yearly goals are too big.  For example, If I have a field to plant I would be ill-served looking at the whole field at once, then to my little plow and frail looking horse.   I’d probably sell my farm and my horse if that’s what I saw every time I had to go to my  field.  A better idea is to see the field in sections.  “I’ll do rows 1 through 10 today, and 10 through 20 tomorrow.  If I feel good on day three then maybe I’ll finish it up, but otherwise I’ll split the final 8 rows into two days.”  Or, you know, whatever a farmer might tell himself to make the job a little less grueling.  The point is to make goals for yourself that don’t make you want to commit suicide when you think about them.  It’s better to set 12 separate 1 month goals than 1 big yearly goal that doesn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of succeeding.

My Resolution this year:

1. My resolution is to run another marathon.  It’s not a big stretch for me because I’ve done it before and I’m already in good shape, but I will still need to follow a plan and make sure I don’t miss days.  I bought my calendar already, and I have shoes.  Thus, I am going to make a weekly schedule for myself before I start tomorrow.  Hopefully this year I can make a series small steps that will add up to a notch in my belt.  A notch which will represent the one and only resolution I have ever made that actually got done!  I’m not going to lie.  I set the bar low.  But I think it’s better to get a victory than scare myself into not doing anything at all.  Once this gets done then perhaps I can aim a little bigger next time.  An Ironman perhaps?

Related posts:

1. New Years Fitness Resolutions: How to Succeed!
2. Pandora’s Box, a New Year’s Message