New Year's Resolutions: A Personal Tragedy

I was going through some of my notes this morning, and one of them wrote:

New Year's Resolution 2023:

100 push ups / day
Start with 10 push ups / day and move up 5 push ups / week
10 the 1st week - 15 the 2nd - 20 - 25 - 30 - 35 - 40 - 45 - 50 - 55 - 60 - 65 - 70 - 75 - 80 - 85 - 90 - 95 - 100
19 weeks to reach full 100 push ups

So, how has the New Year's Resolution been going? The answer is it has not been going. Not only did I not stick with it, I completely forgot about its existence within the first 6 weeks of the year.

You might think: Alfred it was just a one time thing, I am sure you usually stick with them. Well, unfortunately this is not the case. I do not remember the last time I stuck to my New Year's Resolution for more than a month and a half. Yes, the 6 weeks that this year's resolution lasted was probably my Personal Best.

Why have I not stuck to my resolutions? Part of the story is I am a bit stupid and lazy (aren't we all?). Stupid meaning I seem to quickly forget about the goal I was so excited about achieving only a couple weeks prior. Lazy meaning even the days I remember about the existence of the goal, "I am feeling tired" or "I have other things to do that are more important" or " I deserve a break today".

In my defense, another part of the story is that humans, their ideas, and their goals, are not set in stone. They are constantly evolving based on our environment, our conversations with others, how we feel, and a load of other factors. In the case of this year's resolution, although I started the year by putting forth my intention to do 100 push-ups a day, that goal quickly turned into going to the gym on a daily basis, which I followed pretty well (at least while I was in the US). Now, did I achieve this secondary goal fully? No, but like I said, I am a bit stupid and lazy, so it's okay.

Although it's good to have some larger goals/visions for where we want our life to go, perhaps it's best for us to focus more of our time on short term, concrete goals and actions that can be completed within a reasonable time frame, so that our excitement for our goals does not completely fade away, and we increase our probability of achieving them.

Much love,

Alfred