Just My Opinion - By Mary Kilen
Happy New Year!
Will you make New Year’s resolutions? I don’t know how many times I have said that I usually avoid making resolutions at the New Year. So many times, those resolutions made don’t last. We all start the new year with high hopes and expectations. We resolve to make changes. It might be weight loss, quitting smoking, exercising more, or one of any other myriad of life choices.
I generally “resolve” to procrastinate less and get more done during the week to give myself more free time on the weekends. Then I find myself with most of my writing on the weekend anyway. Sometimes, it’s my own fault. Other times, it’s just that there was so much going on throughout the week.
This year, I think that my goal will be somewhat the same, but it will also be to make more time to spend with family. Things always get so busy and we don’t get to Bismarck nearly as often as I feel like we should. I miss Amanda, Zach, Carter, Jozie and Abel when we have too much time between visits together, whether it is here at our house or theirs.
We just finished our Christmas over the weekend and it was wonderful to have them here if it was only from Friday through Sunday. The house was full of hustle and bustle. There were presents to open, good food and great fun. There were games to play. We also took Saturday evening to go to the theater to see Mufasa. We’ve been pretty lucky the last few holidays with movies we have wanted to see as a family. We are also very lucky to have dedicated volunteers at the theater that make it possible to take your whole family to the movies and have snacks at a reasonable price. The seven us went for less than $80 and we all had some sort of treats.
For Christmas, Amanda, Zach and the kids gave Dale and I each gift cards to some of our favorite restaurants. Conveniently, the closest locations for both are Bismarck. I guess we will have to just make good on my resolution and go to Bismarck soon to use them!
Meanwhile, while watching football games on Sunday, I saw a commercial that referred to resolutions and something called Quitter’s Day. I didn’t know that was a real thing, so naturally I had to look it up. The first site listed on my search was National Today.com.
National Today.com says that “Quitter’s Day is held on the second Friday in January. This year, it falls on January 10. The tradition of setting New Year’s resolutions began some 4,000 years ago with the ancient Babylonians. For them, the year did not begin in January but in mid-March — on the first moon after the spring equinox. Quitter’s Day is set aside to recognize those who set new year goals and fail to achieve them — and to encourage and equip them to try again and ultimately succeed. Research has shown that people quit their resolutions for the year by the second Friday of January.
In 2019, extensive research was conducted by Strava, a social network for athletes, and it was found that approximately 80% of people who made New Year’s resolutions have tapped out by the second week of January. Making deductions from the available 800 million user-logged activities in that year, Strava even went on to predict that the second Friday of January was the fateful day when the motivations of most quitters begin to decline. The main areas of focus for resolutions involve exercise, eating habits, and weight loss.
New studies have found that about two-thirds of people abandon their New Year’s resolution within a month. One of the major problems with achieving new year resolutions is that those who set them are over-ambitious. People usually start with high levels of motivation, but as time progresses, the drive begins to wane. The key in achieving goals is to set short, medium, and long-term goals as opposed to one large unrealistic goal. Starting small and staying consistent, and also pairing up with someone else to remain accountable and motivated, will lead to good results. The day is not one to make fun of those who set goals and quit, but one to ultimately inspire them to eventually achieve their goals despite all odds.
The key to not quitting something you started is to not just decide to do something but to be totally devoted to doing it. The second key is persistence, and the third is to get in with a group/club doing the same thing. According to research, these three things are winning recipes to keep going.”
So, if you are like me, and not great at keeping your resolutions, you are not alone. I agree with their three keys to keeping those resolutions. Good luck to all of you who make resolutions!
Maybe as you look at resolutions keep this one in mind. This one was on Facebook and I did not see the original post location. It was labeled “five sentences that shifted my perspective”.
What you give power to has power over you.
It’s not hard, you’ve just never done it before.
Choice is the most powerful tool you have.
Let today be today and tomorrow be tomorrow.
You can’t change what’s going on around you until you change what’s going on within you.
I wish our readers a Happy New Year! May you find joy and happiness in the New Year!