New Year’s Resolutions can be great, but a few weeks of thinking about healthy eating, exercising, organization and goal setting all at the same time can leave you feeling exhausted. Setting resolutions for the year can be empowering, or it can leave you feeling like you live in the world of Radiohead’s “Fitter Happier.”
One of my New Year’s Resolutions is to post on my blog more frequently, but when I started to write over the past few days, I couldn’t settle on anything that I liked. I was unnecessarily stressed because I couldn’t get an idea to work. I had to write something, go to the gym, and eat a salad, when all I wanted to do was put on my Finding Nemo sweatshirt and eat a grilled cheese. And then I realized that I didn’t have to do any of those things if I didn’t want to. In the words of Hannah Horvath, I hold the keys to the prison that is my mind!
Resolutions are a great way of focusing yourself, especially if you’re the type of person who benefits from planning and goal setting. However, they can cause more harm than good. They can get you into a cycle of thinking that every aspect of your life has to be improved. You can start to feel like you have failed if you take a day or two off from the gym, or if you eat ice cream when you said you were going to eliminate dairy. The implicit aim in New Year’s Resolutions is to live a life that you can feel better about. If your resolutions are the thing that are keeping you from living a better life because you are constantly stressed about the things you’re doing wrong, then they’re no longer serving their purpose.
Yesterday, after feeling like there were all these things I had to do, I put on my Finding Nemo sweatshirt and I ate a grilled cheese. I realized that I would be happier if I did what I wanted, rather than forcing myself to do something just so I could say that I stuck to my resolutions. I’ll still keep my resolutions going, because most days I like going to the gym and eating healthily, and I know that I benefit from having goals to work towards. I also know that I benefit from a break on the days when I’m just not feeling it.
A wise woman who goes by the name of Pink once said, “So what, I’m still a rock star.” Though I know that she said it far more literally than I will ever be able to, as I have all the musical talent of a golden retriever, this is something that I like to think to myself on days when things aren’t going as planned. Resolution or not, the most important thing is to do what makes you feel good about yourself. If at the end of the day you can think, “So what, I’m still a rock star,” you know you’re doing something right.
I know you’re awesome. Now go out there and let yourself know too.
Song of the Day: So What by Pink
