The Quote That Explains Why New Year’s Resolutions are Important
New Year’s resolutions are still important even as many influencers in popular culture turn sour on the idea. The prevailing truth is that January 1st is just another day and nothing magical happens when the clock strikes midnight. I’m not here to deny this truth. Moreover, I also recognize that it’s true that most people don’t keep their New Year’s resolutions for more than a few weeks at best.
However, as a mental skills coach it’s my duty to remind you that despite all this New Year’s resolutions are still important. To sum up why I will defer to a 2000-year-old quote with age old wisdom from one of the wisest Stoic philosophers in history.
I do not know whether I shall make progress; but I should prefer to lack success rather than to lack faith.
~Seneca
As Seneca suggests, making a New Year’s resolution is not about changing your life, it’s about having faith that you can change your life. Once you lose that faith, you lose in the game of life. Research suggest that optimism about the future is what fuels success.
So, while today is just another day technically, it’s not another day symbolically. Symbolically it’s a day to renew your faith that you can close the gap between where you are now and where you want to be in 12 months. Let today be a day where you put your faith in yourself that you can do two things:
- Give your best effort to make progress.
- Create and execute a plan that will make your best this year better than your best last year.