Your “New Year Resolutions” are Unnecessary.
Just change today.
(Got two exciting news to share at the end of this post.)
Nobody-
Gym owners every January-
What’s the magical thing about “January 1st” that makes so many people wait till then before they make significant changes to their lives, work and attitude?
Changes that they know are important.
Don’t we realise that in the end, it’s just a date change?
There’s nothing “supernatural” about the turning of a new year.
We are flipping the calender from “31/12/24” to “1/1/25”.
Nothing more.
If the world decides that tomorrow is August 22nd, then tomorrow will be August 22nd.
The world won’t collapse.
The heavens won’t fall.
I doubt God would even be bothered cause He doesn’t count time like we do.
No “new you” will suddenly be born on that day.
No new “mindset” will awaken in you that midnight.
You’ll still be the same person you were the day before.
I don’t understand how that “new year, new me” attitude got so ingrained in people that they won’t leave toxic relationships, change bad habits or start new hobbies because they are waiting to “start in the new year”.
I don’t get it.
If you think that change is good for you, start making it now.
Why are you waiting till 2025 to do so?
Do you realise that if you had started already, you’d have made some progress by now?
You’d be weeks or months ahead of this version of yourself that is currently “waiting for the new year”.
Because rather than dreaming and anticipating, you would have been doing the work.
So please,
Cut that friend off.
Start reading that book.
Resume that course you didn’t finish.
Take that social media break you desperately need.
There’s no better time to start than now, so why are you waiting?
Hear this out:
Mary wants to lose some weight.
So, she creates a diet plan and finds a suitable gym near her house. She knows it will be a lot of hard work, but she’s ready to pay the price to feel more confident in her skin.
However, since it’s October, Mary decides to wait till January. She believes starting in the new year would push her to be a “better version of herself” throughout the year.
So, she waits, and she waits. Her friends keep encouraging her to join them in the gym, but she’s adamant about starting as the new year starts.
January finally arrives and Mary is ready.
New gym clothes? Check. Meal plan? Check.
She even posts her “New Year, New Me” goals online.
The first two weeks, she’s unstoppable. She goes to the gym every day and keeps her diet on point.
But by week three, the excitement fades. Work piles up, and she skips a session.
By week five, she’s missed a whole week.
Meanwhile, her friends who started in October have built routines and pushed through challenges. So even when they falter, they are well-equipped to adapt and continue.
Mary, however, is struggling and she realises that waiting for the new year didn’t give her any super motivation to face the hard work; it just delayed it.
One reason “New Year resolutions” are funny is that most people don’t even see them through till the end.
Either they fail in January or give up before the year ends.
“Resolution” that had been planned since October fails just 9 days into the new year.
So what was the point of all that waiting?
There’s nothing wrong with having a list of goals and personal milestones per year.
I’m saying these goals don’t always have to be confined to a time space.
If you’re planning a change for the betterment of your life, think of it as a long-term goal, stretched across your lifetime or till you achieve it.
When you create so much anticipation about something, getting yourself back into the groove to continue with it might prove difficult if your efforts or the results fall flat off your expectations.
So, if you had started the new goal immediately after you got the idea in October, you’d have made your errors and learnt from them, and right now, you’ll be making steady progress.
Instead, what you did was build up the mental hype and drown yourself in dopamine to the point that doing that thing now feels less satisfying than thinking about doing it.
(read that again.)
P.S. - The term is called “mental masturbation,” and I have a post about it coming on January 1st.
This simply means that this year hasn’t been a “failure” just because you didn’t seem to “achieve anything”.
The good news is that even if you fail your “resolutions” on January 2nd, it’s not too late to pick yourself up and continue.
Same way it’s still not too late to start right now.
Today is December 15, 16 days before the year officially ends.
You can still get something done.
It’s never too late to start anything as long as you're alive.
Return to your 2024 To-Do list and see what else you can tick off in the days left.
Don’t push the still achievable goals to next year’s list.
You can start today.
I know it’s tempting to see the year as a “fresh start” and maybe it is for you in some specific ways.
But that doesn’t mean you have to put the progress of the rest of your life on hold.
Even if you don’t go all out immediately, you can start making little moves to get you in sync.
As long as you’re not idly waiting for January 1st.
Do you get the point?
Let me know your thoughts.
Share this point with someone that needs it.
READ NEXT -
Now to my announcements.
(Davido! Drumroll please…)
ANNOUNCEMENT #1
Next year, 2025, I will be self-publishing my first novel.
(Somebody shout Amen!).
I don’t have a title or a release date yet, but it will be a collection of short fiction stories I have never published before, and I’m gassed about it.
So, next year, be there!
(Oh, but you just made a whole post telling us not to wait till next year to do what we want to do…)
Fair enough.
But right now, I’ve started drafting out plans for the story content, publishing and marketing.
I’ve given myself a little challenge to do it “all by myself” and I’m just curious to see how far I can go without any traditional “help”.
I also have a fair idea of the type of stories that will be in it and the themes I want to cover.
So, I’m ahead of my schedule.
By the end of the year, I’ll be even more ahead of schedule; why?
Because I did not wait till 2025 to start doing the work.
That’s my entire point.
Anyway, stay tuned for more updates; they will come in time.
I am grateful for your support on my stories so far.
Bless!❤
btw,I post writing related stuff on LinkedIn every single day.
ANNOUNCEMENT #2
I am launching another Newsletter called “On Writing & Storytelling”.
It’s still in the works, but I hope to create a community where I can not only share my journey and growth as a “professional” writer.
But also to inspire others and as a form of accountability to myself.
A community of writers where we’ll be talking about storytelling and writing in general.
So, if you’re an aspiring writer, an upcoming writer (like myself), or an established pro, you’re welcome to join.
I’m putting together a guide titled “The Art of Storytelling”.
It will contain lessons and insights on how to craft narratives for Fiction, Non-Fiction, Brand, and Content/Marketing writing.
It’s a welcome gift for all who join the newsletter, and it will be completely FREE OF CHARGE.
Sometimes, this is all a little overwhelming.
I prefer to keep my plans on the lowkey till they are complete or almost complete, but this time I’m trying something different.
Think of it as a form of “public accountability”.
Plus, my total confidence is in God, so zero worries at all.
I’m glad to have you here and we keep going!
Those are my major announcements (for now), if you want to show support for the projects, click this link here.
You’re appreciated! ❤
300 subs before the end of the year? 🙈
You woke up and decided to call me out 😭😂. You’re right, new year is just another day. This was beautiful to read ☺️
For the book launch, I eagerly anticipate it