New Year's Resolutions

Do you make New Year’s resolutions? Grand plans – lose 20 pounds, clean out the garage, learn Italian …

By mid-February do you feel like a loser? That’s what a New Year’s Resolution will do to you. Did you know that gyms get most of their memberships in January? And that by March there’s always a waiting treadmill as people fall off track? January comes with sore muscles as you jump headlong into a vigorous routine, which quickly becomes a dreaded chore that you cannot maintain. Then the dread overwhelms you. You haven’t lost that 20 pounds or become a long-distance runner by March, so you feel like you’ve failed.

Let this be your New Year’s mantra … Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Voltaire said it. But as a struggling perfectionist, I can relate. Did you know that perfectionists are procrastinators? “I can’t make this perfect, so I can’t do it until I can make it perfect” slows down a lot of perfectly good projects. Don’t let a huge, overreaching goal be the enemy of smaller goals attained. Don’t say, “I have to lose 20 pounds.” Say, “What can I do to be healthier today?” Can I walk around the block after dinner? Can I choose, just today, to skip dessert? (Telling yourself “just today” makes it more surmountable, and tomorrow you’ll find it easier to surmount again and again the next day.)

But I’m only using weight and health because they are common resolutions. Maybe you wanted to clean out the garage, or perfectly organize all your photos. How about today you clean out a drawer, maybe next week a cabinet. Maybe this weekend you tackle one box of photos. Starting is the hardest part. Distance runners don’t go full out from the gate. Pace wins races.

Maybe you want to learn Italian. How about this week you just learn how to say “I don’t speak Italian.” In Italian. Next week tackle “How are you?”

Take steps, manageable steps that you can measure, that you can find success in, that put you on pace to a realistic goal. You don't have to do a perfect job. Just do a better job.

Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

Love - Val