Tag Archives: Resolutions

The New Year

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I’ve talked about my opinion of new year resolutions on here before. I made a resolution a long time ago to never make another one. Real change isn’t a gimmick tied to a date on the calendar. I’ve told the story about the old guys at the gym I overheard one time being grumpy and wishing the pretenders would just get over the fact they’re going to quit and get out of the way.

I related this to a guy at the gym the other day, and he had an interesting thought on the matter. Not something I give weight lifters a lot of credit for honestly.

He said, “Part of me absolutely agrees with those guys. There are going to be two or three weeks of being absolutely annoyed that I can’t get to a bench or a weight stack and wishing the quitters would do just that. The other part of me, the one who really loves this, wishes them all the best. I hope they actually stick with it and get healthy or buff or whatever it is they’re trying to do…”

It was so simple and positive. Yes, newbies are annoying and they get in the way and they don’t know the rules (or ignore them) and they’ll probably quit soon. But we shouldn’t want others to fail that way. Going to the gym to be healthy isn’t about winning some kind of competition. It’s not like they’re going to “use up” all the gym and leave none for others when they get there. People of all levels should be able to get in there and do what they do. It’s not like I’m some kind of record breaking work out monster. I’m there to do what I still can in an effort to stay as healthy as I can. I see people there who look like they’re 80 or older. I’ve seen at least two different folks with what are classified as disabilities who are there working hard at the parts they can work. Dude in the wheel chair benches more than I do by far (part of me wants to make a terrible joke about leg day, but I don’t know him well enough). I see a family that’s in there every morning trying to be healthy together.

So no matter how much I don’t care about the whole “new year resolution” thing, I’m not going to put anyone down for trying to get better. I hope you succeed. I hope you get what you need out of the change you’re trying to make.

I’m going to keep doing what I do, only (hopefully) with a little more regularity than I’ve had for a while.

Happy New Year. I hope your year is amazing and wonderful and all the great things you desire.

A New Year? Again?

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2019 really does seem like a bit of a blur to me. I’m more shocked than any other reaction that it’s actually 2020 now.

I looked back at my new year post from this past January. I can’t say that I’ve truly shaken the slump, but I’m slowly getting better / back to where I once was. I read more (though I am still failing at the reviews thing), I caught up on more media that I had been missing out on and I’ve written a few thousand words. They weren’t spectacular words, but they were progress (and they are part of why there hasn’t been more being posted here).

Given my recent post on habits, one might think that I’d be putting something up here about resolutions and how big changes are coming, etc., etc…

Well, no. That’s not how I operate. Many years ago I made a New Year’s resolution to NEVER make a New Year’s resolution again. Guess what? Total success. Still going strong on that one. IF you want or need change in your life, the calendar is convenient, but not required. Make the change to grow or get better when you make that choice. Do what you need in order to adjust your habits.

I get the feeling that I should try to have some kind of review of the past decade, but again – not really my style. I don’t like list posts – they seem kind of cheap to me. This time of year is busy for sure, but readers that have time on their hands around travel time or in an attempt to get away from relatives want something new to read, not just another review / list.

As we all go crashing into 2020 (may you be able to live with all the vision jokes) let’s hope that the most amazing positive thing that happened last year for us is just a springboard to even more amazing in the coming year.