January: A Reminder of Failed New Year's Resolutions

JANUARY. The first month of the new year is named after the Roman god Janus,?standing for beginnings, transitions, and endings. Janus has an iconic image, made up of two faces; one looking into the past, the other into the future. It ironically makes sense, right? Here we are, reflecting on 2022 and looking ahead to 2023.

January can be a surprisingly conflicting time. While some of you are already taking on 2023 at full throttle with your goals set and your batteries charged, others are still wading in the post-holiday blues (lower adrenaline = feeling lazy, unmotivated, unenthusiastic, anxious, and even a little bit grumpy about getting back into daily routine), which means that resolution setting is taking a back seat (if any at all).

If you’re not feeling the hype of setting your new year’s resolutions, know you’re not alone. I, for one, am not a fan of making new year’s resolutions, largely because I’ve made so many in the past which I haven’t achieved. It feels like more of a painful exercise rather than a pleasant one and I particularly dread being asked about my resolutions in a social setting. On its face, it's deceptively easier for some of us anti-resolutioners to take a blanket approach and say that this year we will do better and be better – overall – at work and in our personal lives. But where does that actually leave us in terms of measurable mental, physical, and emotional progress? As they say, if you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it, and without a doubt we're on a lifelong journey of improving as many aspects of our lives as possible.

Research shows that the vast majority of new year’s resolutions made by people, fail. Does that mean that some of us have adopted the right MO by not making them altogether, or are we missing the critical exercise of self-reflection to understand why our previous resolutions failed and what that tells us about our subconscious mind? I’ve been in the former camp for some time, largely because of fear. When we look deeper into ourselves, we worry about what we may uncover. It’s much easier to look away. But recent reading about the subconscious mind has encouraged me to re-think my approach. I think I’m losing out in the long haul.

Ultimately, it is our subconscious mind – the thoughts and feelings that are below our conscious and logical awareness – which is our true control center. It explains our achievements and our failures. The silver lining of it all? We can in fact reprogram our subconscious mind to work in our favour. Like a muscle – the more we use it, train it and exercise it – the stronger it becomes. Maybe this is the year to take on that challenge.

What are your views on failed new year’s resolutions and how they impact us?