Happy New Year!
This year, I really have one main resolution, which is to maintain the fitness regimen I saw success with up until the start of the holiday season:
Exercise four times a week (running or going to the gym).
Don’t eat after 10 pm.
Limit alcohol and sugary drinks to once a week.
Eat salads for lunch at least twice a week.
Thus far, I’ve found some parts of that easier than others. I went weeks without drinking, and I didn’t really miss it at all. Avoiding eating after 10 pm was fine as well, as long as I was a bit mindful with my schedule.
Unfortunately, the salads for lunch1 and the gym frequency flew out the window when work started getting even a little busy. The eating late followed suit when I would have late nights at the office, and the lack of drinking turned into a lot of drinking as holiday parties approached.
Importantly, my brief success gives me faith that I can adhere to these goals going forward.
In my opinion, the hardest part of any New Year’s resolution is the temptation to go full “New Year, New Me.” Waking up early to hit the gym every day is a noble aspiration, as is committing to some intense diet. Obviously, when you set your sights so high, the inevitable setback typically leads to a very hard fall.
One apparent solution is the Hard 75.2 In short, it’s a challenge which demands extreme discipline over 75 days, requiring total commitment to diet, daily workouts, reading, and journaling.
My concern is that, if you couldn’t maintain one new habit, trying to install a whole host of new habits is going to be tough, even if you’re going about it with an all-in focus. Reading about the Hard 75, a lot of the marketing indicates that it is designed to help people foster and harness personal discipline, which feels ambitious.
In my experience, pretty much any trait requires development, even softer stuff like proactivity, creativity, and, yes, discipline. You don’t just pick up a chessboard and expect to be a master or debut at the gym and expect to bench 225. You try to be patient with yourself and embrace the ebb and flow of any journey to improve. Growth is not linear. If you improve at something 1% every day, that 1% is probably an average.
As a result, I would like to propose a solution: keep at your New Year’s resolutions, and try to find times to (re)install them throughout the year! This is a great time of year to work on yourself, but it isn’t the only time. If you do try out some 75 day challenge and hit a snag, why not give it another go in March?
In my Entrepreneurship classes at UNC, we talked about Minimum Viable Products, or MVPs - basically, a lite first pass at a product that allows you to cheaply fail and gather feedback. We need resolution MVPs! Better to try a lot of different goals and find the ones that you’re ready to achieve than, rather than fail after putting all your eggs in one basket. When you take another stab at your resolutions later this year, use what you have learned to make them into Resolutions 2.0. Find ways to make them more achievable without compromising your values.
Just stay positive, guys. Any attempt at self-improvement is a good attempt. Keep striving - I’ll do the same!
Most important, here’s to 2025 being the best one yet.
Yes, it’s only 2/5 days. Still not easy for me! I definitely struggle with that kind of self control when faced with a full menu.
Nadia told me about it the other day.
I admire that you’ve focused in on one resolution. Every year, I find myself creating a whole laundry list and forgetting half of them. That said, I agree with the approach of renewing them throughout the year. And why not have monthly resolutions? Or even weekly or daily? Self-improvement doesn’t only occur on Jan 1.