Why I Don't Make New Year's Resolutions
As 2015 draws to a close (no flying cars) my biggest achievement is that I can control my front lights to my house from my phone, from any location, in the world. Not really, it's been a year of personal growth, acceptance, resilience, and grieving my losses. But I digress.
I don't make New Year's Resolutions. I tried it before and it just seems so arbitrary to pick the 1st day of a new year to make a significant change. And guess what? Most resolutions fail quickly. People want to make unrealistic goals and achieve them fast, then get disappointed when it doesn't pan out. I'm guilty of that, too.
If something needs to be changed in your life, the time is always now. I had the privilege to attend Scott Adams' (writer of Dilbert comic strip) keynote speech this summer when I was in San Diego for RATechED. I was astonished to see that I wasn't alone. The message of his keynotes speech is that you will set goals and most of the time you won't achieve it. It doesn't make you a failure unless you give up. If you truly have a goal and your method didn't achieve it you just need to change your approach and try again.
This past fall I was unhappy with my appearance. I used to be a pretty skinny dude, but life took its toll on me. I didn't make the time to take care of myself in the way I used to. Most of the reasons point back to my sedentary job and being a dad. But I don't have much for excuses with being a dad because now I have been thrown into a life where I'm a dad about half the time I used to be.
With that said, I started running in my neighborhood. I don't like running, but I love the way I feel after a good workout. I'm way out of shape and I don't have the kind of structure I need to lose that weight. I also need to change my eating habits to better achieve my goals. I did all this in 2010 and picked an arbitrary day of February 25th to start on my path to being more healthy. And I did it! I lost 50 lbs and damn did I look good. So good that my sex drive went crazy. It also helped that Cindy lost weight, too. (Remember this was 2010). I was able to get us to stick to the healthy diet because I was the cook and I had someone to cook for. With that crazy sex drive... we got ourselves Zachary in February of 2011. Very exciting times. But with a pregnant wife, the diet changed. After Zach was born, juggling three kids proved to be difficult and my exercise went away and the weight came back.
Once Cindy moved out, she took the very tool that I was able to at least maintain a somewhat active lifestyle... the treadmill. As boring as it sounds, the treadmill forces me to stick to a speed and reach my goals. But cranking up music loudly puts me in the mood to run and after a good run I feel like I'm on top of the world.
So last week I finally found a nice Proform treadmill on Craigslist. Good price, I jumped all over it and got that baby home. Am I waiting until January 1st? Fuck no. I've already started running again. I slightly adjusted my eating so that I can ease my way back to the diet I was doing in 2010. It's perfect for me and I don't go hungry. I'm allowed to cheat, because the name of the game is to get my metabolism back up.
Today was kind of a big deal because it was the first run I had while the kids were home. All their needs were taken care of and I asked for one hour to take care of my own. For the most part they respected it and while I had to step off for a minute or two to get the kids a drink, I was very successful in today's workout.
My whole point in this long winded post is that if you are unhappy with something, change it now! Don't wait! Because you will never get this moment again. Don't wait for an arbitrary date to start, start now. And don't make unrealistic goals, make small goals that you can achieve and then move the goal posts further.
I'm determined to be fit again. I felt my best and did my best when I felt good about myself. Really the whole point of this is the same thing Kevin Spacey's character said in American Beauty... 'I want to look good naked.'
Sounds good to me...
I don't make New Year's Resolutions. I tried it before and it just seems so arbitrary to pick the 1st day of a new year to make a significant change. And guess what? Most resolutions fail quickly. People want to make unrealistic goals and achieve them fast, then get disappointed when it doesn't pan out. I'm guilty of that, too.
If something needs to be changed in your life, the time is always now. I had the privilege to attend Scott Adams' (writer of Dilbert comic strip) keynote speech this summer when I was in San Diego for RATechED. I was astonished to see that I wasn't alone. The message of his keynotes speech is that you will set goals and most of the time you won't achieve it. It doesn't make you a failure unless you give up. If you truly have a goal and your method didn't achieve it you just need to change your approach and try again.
This past fall I was unhappy with my appearance. I used to be a pretty skinny dude, but life took its toll on me. I didn't make the time to take care of myself in the way I used to. Most of the reasons point back to my sedentary job and being a dad. But I don't have much for excuses with being a dad because now I have been thrown into a life where I'm a dad about half the time I used to be.
With that said, I started running in my neighborhood. I don't like running, but I love the way I feel after a good workout. I'm way out of shape and I don't have the kind of structure I need to lose that weight. I also need to change my eating habits to better achieve my goals. I did all this in 2010 and picked an arbitrary day of February 25th to start on my path to being more healthy. And I did it! I lost 50 lbs and damn did I look good. So good that my sex drive went crazy. It also helped that Cindy lost weight, too. (Remember this was 2010). I was able to get us to stick to the healthy diet because I was the cook and I had someone to cook for. With that crazy sex drive... we got ourselves Zachary in February of 2011. Very exciting times. But with a pregnant wife, the diet changed. After Zach was born, juggling three kids proved to be difficult and my exercise went away and the weight came back.
Once Cindy moved out, she took the very tool that I was able to at least maintain a somewhat active lifestyle... the treadmill. As boring as it sounds, the treadmill forces me to stick to a speed and reach my goals. But cranking up music loudly puts me in the mood to run and after a good run I feel like I'm on top of the world.
So last week I finally found a nice Proform treadmill on Craigslist. Good price, I jumped all over it and got that baby home. Am I waiting until January 1st? Fuck no. I've already started running again. I slightly adjusted my eating so that I can ease my way back to the diet I was doing in 2010. It's perfect for me and I don't go hungry. I'm allowed to cheat, because the name of the game is to get my metabolism back up.
Today was kind of a big deal because it was the first run I had while the kids were home. All their needs were taken care of and I asked for one hour to take care of my own. For the most part they respected it and while I had to step off for a minute or two to get the kids a drink, I was very successful in today's workout.
My whole point in this long winded post is that if you are unhappy with something, change it now! Don't wait! Because you will never get this moment again. Don't wait for an arbitrary date to start, start now. And don't make unrealistic goals, make small goals that you can achieve and then move the goal posts further.
I'm determined to be fit again. I felt my best and did my best when I felt good about myself. Really the whole point of this is the same thing Kevin Spacey's character said in American Beauty... 'I want to look good naked.'
Sounds good to me...