It’s finally here, folks. The calendar has finished it’s long, long cycle and 2019 is finally here. With it comes the annual flurry of resolutions and promises to be better than we were in 2018. Very little change actually occurs at the start of a New Year, however. The weather continues to be dreary, the homework continues to come in never ending droves, and the people continue in their old habits.

We’ve all seen it, in ourselves or in our friends. A goal is set, a plan is made, and maybe good progress is made for a couple weeks. Inevitably, something happens to halt our growth, and while the redeeming quality of humans is that we can change, our fault is that we often don’t. Besides that, change rarely comes at the start of a New Year.

(“Rarely”, because it does happen. Just as we’ve all seen goals go unmet, we all have a friend that is so stinking good at making progress. Usually they just make us feel bad.)

Perhaps the flaw in our plans for change isn’t our lack of willpower, though. People are not robots, and we don’t work with set rules. We don’t make sense. The belief that we can time our growth to neatly match the earth’s rotation around the sun isn’t logical. And while partying on New Years Eve is a tradition we all love, maybe we need to lay off the New Years goals.

Instead, let’s turn our attention to a more realistic form of change. Goals are a helpful way to measure and encourage our progress, so let’s set goals that are tailored for us. Honestly look at yourself and what you want to do, and rather than say “I’ll start that January first and keep going for the rest of my life,” evaluate when you can get that done if you push yourself. Because goals go unmet when they’re made at New Years, but change is started when we’re honest with ourselves.

As far as goals go, go big or go home. Be honest, but never be afraid to push yourself. Usually, humans can do more and go farther than we think we can. You have the capacity to accomplish your goals and then some.

PC: WallpaperLepi