NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS.

We are in May, the fifth month of any given year, and many people have long since left aside all, or almost all their New Year’s resolutions; all of which are established at the beginning of the year in January. It is not relevant to mention that we are living in 2019, since many of us have stopped fulfilling other purposes established in previous years, too.

Each year, by custom or of their own initiative, people reflect on their past and put forth objectives they hope to accomplish in the following months. But as time goes on, they realize that they cannot follow up on any of them and they begin to somehow torment themselves, trying not to give up on their struggle to achieve their New Year’s resolutions. I have been asked, how can I establish a solid foundation to fulfill my New Year’s resolutions?

Purpose is defined as the firm determination to do something, which makes it an objective that we intend to achieve; then, even if it seems redundant, we can define an objective as what drives us to make decisions, pursue aspirations or establish goals to achieve a specific goal. Knowing that a purpose is equal to an objective, with the difference that a purpose is much broader and reflects desires that are sometimes complicated to perform, we can begin to use the word objective because it is measurable, planned, organized and limited by time. In this way, we can modify the original question a bit and rewrite it in this way: How do I set goals that help me achieve the objectives planned for next twelve months? Thus, we will be starting to establish solid foundations on which we can rely to reach our objectives.

Also, we must recognize that a new year’s purpose emerges as a desire to accomplish something that is often subjective or simply an unsatisfied ideal left behind from previous years. For this reason, we often forget them two or three months after having expressed them, since they lack real importance in our lives, which is demonstrated when five months of the year have already passed and for different reasons we have not been able to follow up on any of them.

Some of my friends have shown me their lists of New Year’s resolutions and I think it’s great that they wrote them done as a way of not forgetting them, so long as that list does not become a frustrating reminder of things we want to do, but can’t because of lack of time, lack of commitment or an endless list of obstacles that prevent us from complying with them. For this reason, I believe that before framing our purposes in a list, we must define what our objectives are really to achieve during the coming months. Recognizing what changes we want to make and organize our life to it accordingly. Thus, we can define what would be the purpose that motivates us to make those changes, assuming a constant commitment with ourselves to be able to achieve them.

I also believe that the past months of the year should not define the success or failure of these objectives, since, although five months of the year have passed, we still have seven more months to be able to fulfill our desires. Nor should we concentrate on thinking about the time we have not worked to achieve them, because then we become frustrated and we begin to refuse to fulfill these purposes. Another common mistake that can be made is to think that next year we will have more time to do them, without considering that each year is the same with 12 months and that parameter will never change. Therefore, what must change is our way of acting in the face of our daily challenges and fight to strengthen our commitment to the realization of those purposes. Striving to not give up. But you might ask why? And for what? If we want to meet those goals, we must plan for them. Setting simple but effective goals that help us move forward to achieve them.

Let’s not try to organize our time, because time does not define our productivity. Instead, let’s change our way of thinking and our attitude to perform our daily tasks. Let’s strive to enjoy everything we do, no matter if it is easy, difficult, work related, has to do with our home responsibilities, school oriented or revolves around our familiar obligations. With an open mind focused on doing everything willingly and happily, and with a positive attitude, we can move all our senses and body to be focused on completing all our goals before the end of the day; being able to reward ourselves by having time to work on our purposes and enjoy all the personal things that we like to do for fun or pleasure.

And in this way, we will learn that time does not exist when we enjoy looking for success, persevering in everything we do, respecting everything that surrounds us and loving everything we have.