Why I Don't Make New Year's Resolutions
And what I do instead
Many people use the new year to start over. To eat better, stop smoking or drinking, exercise more, but here’s why it’s one of the worst times to start something new.
The energy of the Winter season is hibernation, going inward. Your true nature wants you to snuggle up next to a fire with your dog, tea, and a book (or something to that effect). New Year’s Resolutions are often sweeping declarations, making huge changes in your life. “I want to go the gym or practice yoga every day,” “I want to quit smoking/drinking cold turkey,” or “I want to eliminate sugar from my diet.”
These two energies are diametrically opposed to each other.
Winter energy moves slowly. It’s when seeds are nestled in the ground, waiting for Spring when they can burst out of the ground as plants. Winter is the time for setting intentions, planting the seeds that you want to bring forth later in the year.
I believe this is why so many New Year’s Resolutions fail: you are making big changes at a time that doesn’t support big movements. Plus, positive lasting change is made gradually over time, not all at once. Habits change slowly. Having an “all or nothing” approach won’t create sustaining habits. It’s like a diet, it’s temporary, and doesn’t last. Plus, willpower is a limited commodity, it only endures so long.
Winter is the time to set your intentions for the year, and maybe discover a word or phrase that will support your intentions. Winter is the time for meditation, journaling, introspection, and Svadhyaya/Self-Inquiry. Ponder the changes that you want to make and create a plan with gradual steps to make it happen.
Spring is the time to put thoughts into action because the energy is moving upward and outward. Spring energy encourages you to move your body, get outside, and be creative. This is the best time to make “New Year’s Resolutions” because the energy of the season is on your side, encouraging you to act.
Setting intentions
Because we’re in Winter right now (at least in the Northern Hemisphere), it’s time to plant seeds of intention for the Spring. Think about what you want for your life, your health, your work, and what changes or shifts would support that. How do you want to feel day to day, mentally and physically? What are things in your life that are working that you want to expand on or increase? Is there anything not working that you want to adjust?
Write a list of goals for yourself. Brainstorm and let them all fall out on the page. Then, for each goal, write down all of the steps that you’ll need to take in order to make those goals happen.
For example, if your goal is to lose weight, your steps might be:
set times in your calendar to exericse
join gym or yoga studio
get appropriate clothing/gear/shoes
throw out the junk food in your house
buy more fruits and vegetables that are easy to grab
get a slow cooker to make stew, chilli, and soup, healthy options that are easy to warm up quickly
sleep more
Some of these steps might have smaller sub-steps in them, like “sleep more” could have:
set a notification in your phone to remind you to go to bed on time
turn off electronics 30 minutes before bedtime
shower or take a bath before bed
get a white noise machine/eye mask
Write it all down, be as detailed as possible. Small steps are much easier to achieve than big ones, especially during this time of year. Overwhelm is common with big sweeping changes, and causes you to give up. The best way that I know to get out of overwhelm is to make the task smaller. These small achievements give you the small dopamine hits that keep you going, building on what you did previously until you reach your goal.
Join me New Year’s Morning to set intentions for the year!
January 1, 2025 8:30-10am EST I’ll be teaching New Year’s Beginning, online! Practice yoga, meditation, and do some journaling with prompts to get you started on your intentions for the year. Discover your word or phrase of the year, something that will support your intentions. Last year my word was Self-Love and it carried me through, supporting my decisions and how I lived my life. What will yours be? Click the button to sign up!
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That's a good point, Tim. As a human created system, if you are tuned into that, I can see how that could be a useful time for a do-over. I still feel like big changes are best made slowly over time rather than all at once, regardless of the time of year. Happy New Year Tim!
This all makes sense and fits what I’ve seen too.
While I don’t make the resolutions, can see why they work for many people even still. There’s a clear ending and beginning, so they can see themselves as a different person in the new year. The calendar has its own energy, and we can tune into that, especially if we attuned to it for certain kinds of goal driven work in groups of like-minded people. That calendar energy can pull us with it.