I wish you and your family a Healthy, Happy, and Prosperous New year!

New Year’s Resolution or New Year’s Goals.  Which is better?

Recently, I had my usual end of year conversation with my darling son, now a father and husband, thinking about his own family aspirations for the New year.  The question was, “what are our New Year’s Resolutions/Goals?.  He promptly informed me that he no longer set New Year’s resolutions, but rather New Year’s Goals.  This brought me back to prior conversations we’ve had concerning these two words.  I agreed with him, of course.  Having given some thought to this stance before, realizing that these are only words.

The Latin origin of the word Resolution is resolvere, which means loosen or release. According to the Oxford Dictionary, “if you make a resolution, you promise yourself to do something”.   So, a New Year’s Resolution is an intent, a statement of decision to do something about a situation that we are not wholly satisfied with.

According to Dictionary.com, “a goal is an objective or target that someone is trying to reach or achieve”.

After doing some searching, reading, looking into these two words, I felt that they are clearly saying the same thing.  Whether I call the intent a Goal or a Resolution,

These seem to be the real problems with Goals or Resolutions:

• Folks often make unrealistic goals or resolutions.  • We expect to accomplish or reach them by day 90. • We tend to be too rigid with them. We must expect to mess up and eat that cookie sometimes. Reset and start again.  • It doesn’t have to be all or nothing. Celebrate each milestone. •Baby Steps lead to bigger steps.  •Very few goals or resolutions are met overnight. • Each person is on their own journey. We tend to measure our success against that of others. That’s a set up for failure.  Walk your own walk.

Here are a few things that have helped me to stay the course over the years:

Make a list of realistic goals or resolutions

Decide that you want to succeed at them

Write them down and post them somewhere visible

Revisit and review them often

Tell a trusted friend or family about them.  They can be your accountability partner.  Be sure they are a true friend who won’t beat up on you when you fall back… because you will.

Know that Rome was not built in a day.  Anything worth having is worth waiting for.  Changes take time.  Be patient with yourself.  Stay the course. Focus!

Praise yourself often

Journal your progress and your failures.

Hit that Reset button and start again and again and again.

Sign up for a class.

Buy a book that speaks to the goal at hand.

Start Today.

It’s a LIFESTYLE, not a marathon

YOU CAN DO THIS!!! COME ON…LET’S GET STARTED!!!!

Marva Riley, RN. Author of EAT! SLEEP! MEDITATE! A NURSE’S GUIDE TO HEALTH

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0578728079