We have just started a wonderful time of year, a new beginning, a time to start over, to improve, and be a better version of ourselves. It is so exciting. The promise of possibilities fills hearts, minds, and the air. Resolutions are made. Goals are established. Journals are purchased. New 2019 calendars, planners, and day-timers are given as gifts and bought with holiday gift money. Some are decorative and matching, while others are simple and classic. Regardless of style, they will do the job.
In the beginning stages of this process we start asking ourselves what kind of resolutions are best? Weight loss? Exercise? Me time? Read more? Volunteer? Spend more time with friends? Take that class we have been wanting to take? Learn a new language? We wonder, how many resolutions should we have? Are ten too many? Are three too few? Should our goals be short-term? Or long-term? Should we list the long-term goal and under it some short-term goals? What about color-coding our goals in our planner? How about sharing them with someone? Would that make us more accountable and increase our success? We spend so much time and expend so much energy getting ready to start, that we can become euphoric at the thought of beginning and becoming. Day one is so exhilarating.
But what about finishing? Author, Jon Acuff in his book, Finish: Give Yourself the Gift of Done, addresses that we are fantastic at starting, but that the transformation takes place by finishing. He references that studies show that only eight percent of us who make New Year’s resolutions actually achieve them. Let us think about that for a minute. Eight percent!
Acuff worked with a researcher who wanted to study a group of people who were working one of Acuff’s self-improvement plans. He discovered what day most people quit their new programs. Any guess which day is the day the greatest number of individuals quit? Day two. That’s right, the second day. Why? Because we execute day one perfectly, and day two is less than perfect. Acuff found that we quit the day after perfect! He goes on to inform us that if we can let go of perfectionism and work toward these resolutions less than perfectly, we will finish and achieve our hopes, dreams, wishes, goals, and resolutions.
Let us each accept our humanity and make a resolution to finish imperfectly this year!
