Blasted New Year Discipline

Looking forward to the new year, means making "resolutions". You know what a new year's resolution is, right? It's something, or a list of somethings, that you are going to do, or do differently, in the new year. Here are the popular ones from the usa.gov website:

Lose Weight

Volunteer to Help Others

Quit Smoking

Get a Better Education

Get a Better Job

Save Money

Get Fit

Eat Healthy Food

Manage Stress

Manage Debt

Take a Trip

Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle

Drink Less Alcohol 

Seriously, now, how many times have you chosen one, or some, of these particular items, and decided that you were going to start it up in the new year? And how many times did you fall short before January came to an end?

New year's resolutions are for the birds. Those things that you choose for your new year's resolutions are things that you want to do anyway, but consistently have difficulty getting started, no matter what time of year. We like new beginnings, starting over, passing go and collecting $200. What is more of a fresh start than the new year? Nothin', bub! So every year, we grab a hold of our opportunity to accomplish these things because the slate is blank on January 1st. When we start missing  the mark during January, well, the slate doesn't look quite so clean anymore. It looks the same as it does the rest of the year. So, we leave the new year's resolution idea in January, and move on through the remaining months until our slate looks clean enough again to convince us that it's time for another stab at it.

The real issue: Blasted Discipline!

The reason that we haven't already done those things on our list is because we have been undisciplined. January 1st does not magically infuse self-discipline into our beings. January 1st merely infuses us with the idea that we can start again without all the previous strike-outs showing up on our score card. And we can, but we also need . . . I don't even want to say it again, but here goes . . . discipline. Blasted Discipline.

Here's an idea! What if you accomplished your goals two days out of the thirty-one available to you in January? Two is better than zero, right? Instead of stopping because you've failed too many times, just keep going. Take it into February, and maybe you'll succeed another couple of days in February. I would imagine that by the time you get to March, you'll be thinking, "I can do better in March than I did in February." Who knows, by the end of the year, you may have had 30 or 40 successful days - that's like 10%. Come on - 10% improvement? Yes!!! Keep going through the next year and the next. That percentage will continue to grow, because you have started to track your success rather than be shamed by your failure.

And you've also tricked Blasted Discipline into being your slave. Mwahahaha!

So, go boldly into January. Track your success throughout the year, and begin to enjoy your new relationship with . . . you know who.