Two Day Magazine

Lose weight. Save money. Eat healthier. Take a trip. Change something.

Stop making new year’s resolutions. Check.

About the only good new year’s resolution is the one where you resolve to not making any more goals you’ll likely quit before Groundhog Day or look back on in a year wishing you’d have followed through with whatever it was you thought you could accomplish.

As common (and silly) as party hats and noisemakers are around this time of year, so are new year’s resolutions. Face it, we’ve all ushered in a new year thinking up some grandiose plan to lose weight, get out of debt or change something about our lives.

Yes, there are success stories, but for the vast majority of new year’s resolvers, goals fall short long before the snow melts into spring. New year's resolutions aren't for me. While I'm typically a go-getter, starting something fresh isn't what I want to do after coming off a yuletide high.

After five times of going to the gym in two weeks several years back, I stopped. I wanted to see results now!

The following year, I tried eating healthier. That lasted maybe two weeks until I realized it wasn’t as easy as I thought to maintain a healthy diet.

And then there was the year I failed within a week at keeping my new year's resolution of saving money, only to pick it up again in February.  Before the end of the month, I had failed. Again.

At other times throughout my life — and at different times in the year — I’ve had some success at each of those goals. But considering them new year’s resolutions seemed to be the downfall to my successes. The problem many of us make with new year’s resolutions is that our goals either are unattainable at the time or we have no plan in reaching our goal — or both.

Rather than make a new year’s resolution to, say, shed a few pounds, one might consider something more achievable, such as adding 30 minutes of exercise to our daily routine each week.

Or if saving money is your goal, maybe it’s a matter of using a certain amount of cash each week for food, entertainment and miscellaneous purchases, and placing any change left over from each day into a container at home. Or buying that weekend pizza from a grocery store (or making it yourself!) instead of ordering delivery.

If going on a trip is your goal, then that could be the reward for saving money. See, then you could say you had two resolutions this year!

Those ideas sound like great plans, and if they work for you, great! But I have resolved to resolve nothing this year. It’s not that I’m perfect … though, very close. Rather, I’m all about challenging myself to goals that seem to pop up along the way in work, volunteer and personal life activities.

This year, try to make your goals achievable and specific. You’ll appreciate the reward in the long run and might see that making a resolution isn’t required in order to ring in another year.

***************************

Can’t get enough of Bobby Cherry? We don’t blame you! Check out his website: Gobobbo.com or follow him on Twitter @GoBobbo.

twoday magazine wants to know: Are resolutions ever rational? Facebook us your thoughts!