by Amanda Hills
It’s January 13. Thirteen days ago, you made your New Year’s resolutions. You vowed to ignore your carb cravings, to cover your mouth every time you are tempted to yell at your younger brother and to cut down on the number of times a week you shop ’til you drop.
But now it is 13 days later. You had a piece of toast for breakfast, you just barked at your brother for taking too long of a shower and you are headed out the door to Bloomingdale’s for its post-holiday season sale.
New Year’s resolutions give people hope. Hope that circumstances will improve in the coming year, that they all accomplish that goal they have always dreamed of reaching and that they all make some sort of progress in their lives.
But these pledges are hardly ever kept. People give in to their wants and desires, forgetting the promises they have recently made to themselves. Some time after the ball drops, the dieters stop dieting, the composed stop composing and the penny-pinchers stop penny-pinching.
Making a New Year’s resolution can give you the opportunity to be introspective and reflect on your life.
Creating a goal for yourself means that you are making a commitment that you will be tenacious and strong-willed for as long as it takes to attain that target.
But, when you give up on that ambition, you are often right back where you started, if not several steps behind.
January 1 should be that time of year when everyone sits down, takes out a pen and a sticky note, writes down a goal and puts it somewhere he or she will see every day.
It should not be that time of year when everyone writes down overly ambitious and implausible promises to himself.
Thirteen days later, that sticky note should continue to represent hope and persistence––not a failed attempt at achieving aspirations.
Think of the feeling of accomplishment that comes with completing a goal. Now compare that feeling to the knot you get in your stomach when you know  you have let go of your intent.
Which would you rather have following you around all the time? The feeling of success or the feeling of regret?
Use New Year’s resolutions as a time to make a change in your life. Do not use New Year’s resolutions as an opportunity to write an impossible goal that will leave you even worse off than when you started.