As you probably know, a new year is upon us.  A year that could be filled with countless opportunities, new beginnings, and the age old New Year’s resolutions.  Resolutions are great, right?  You get really excited about something you want to do, and before you know it you’re thinking of the end product; what it is going to be like after you do what you resolved to do.  The only problem is that you overlooked something; the part in the middle.  Everyone loves the way they feel at the beginning of a resolution.  The energy is pumping, the spirits are high, and it looks like this year you might actually get out there and run a mile a day, but then you actually start running.  You’re a tenth of the way done with your run and you feel like you’ve run a marathon.  Your initial energy is gone and all you want to do is quit, but fueled by the image of yourself after 3 months of running, you power through the next 0.4 of the mile.  Congratulations, you’ve finished half your goal…. now do the next half a mile.  You look down at the control board on the treadmill and think, “Maybe a mile was a bit ambitious.  I’ve been running for 8 minutes now and am exhausted, so maybe I’ll change my resolution to half a mile a day, and then when I’m in better shape, I’ll kick it back up to a mile.”  And just like that, you have already failed half of your resolution.  You are that much closer to quitting altogether, but because you altered your resolution, you get pumped again to try something new.  The only problem is that just like the first time you ran, that energy is only going to take you so far.  Say only to 0.4 miles, but that’s good enough, right?

People have always set New Year’s resolutions and will continue to set them because it is a fun tradition.  In your sleep deprived and hazy state you get excited with your friends about what you are going to accomplish and how great it’s going to be in the end, but then you wake up the next morning it’s actually time to do what you had promised yourself, you take the lazy way out.  You say, “I’ll do it tomorrow,” or, “I was just kidding anyway.”  So here is my challenge to you.  Don’t set a bunch of unachievable goals this year.  Set one, just one, and do it by months.  If it is an exercise plan, start small.  If it is an academic plan, come up with ways to help yourself continue working on it.  Find support groups, people with the same plans, and get together with them.  Don’t quit or change your goal to be easier on yourself.  That is why you start small and get bigger.  So set a single goal and accomplish it.  That is my challenge to you.