I woke up on January 3rd expecting to feel different. I had spent the previous week reflecting on my goals for the year and gave myself permission to start after the holiday weekend. I suppose it was silly to expect that I would pop out of bed, 2 hours earlier and with double the energy as usual and proceed to accomplish all of my goals for the year immediately.
"Dear Diary, It's January 5 and I've already achieved everything I've set out to do for the year. Boom!"
What's that saying from my childhood? "Psych"
The truth is that on January 3rd I woke up as almost the same me from January 2nd, except one day older.
After a week of vacation mode I struggled to get out of bed and hit the snooze more times than I care to admit. Some of my classes were still on winter break so I didn't quite find my normal work groove. I had been so motivated when I was brainstorming - where was that energy when it was time to start?
I chugged along, not really relaxing but not really working either. I was disappointed.
New Year, New You - right?
I didn't feel very new.
And then…
At lunch I thought "I'd like to have a soda." Followed by "Nope. It's a weekday and I'm on a mission to be healthier this year. Won't hit my goal of 300 Days of No Soda in 2017 unless I start making a healthier choice."
I poured myself a glass of water and as I sat down to eat it hit me… that's a decision I might not have made a week ago.
Maybe I am changing - one teeny, tiny choice at a time.
New Year, New very slightly changed Me, after all.
A couple notes:
- I have not been soda free since Jan 3. I let myself "party" over the weekend. There's a reason I didn't set the goal as 365 Days of No Soda. I'm working on making healthier choices about 80% of the time - there needs to be some wiggle room in all of my goals. I've learned that being too restrictive usually means I rebound hard. (That's not true for everyone. Some people are all or nothing. Some people give something up and never look back. I'm working on moderation.)
- The pressure of new years resolutions can be too great. And the expectation to be totally different immediately and kick butt right away is a spectacular way to set yourself up for disappointment and discouragement (and ultimately potential failure) if you don't get big results right away. This is true of health goals, career goals, relationship goals… basically ALL the types of goals. I'm not knocking big goals. And I'm not saying things can't build momentum and happen really fast when you focus and set your mind to it. They can. But it's important to set a pace for yourself that sets you up for success for the whole year and beyond… not for burn out.