Acronychal
We Set Ourselves Up For Disappointment
This ties in directly to my last reason. I’m sure we have all had seen a loved one, friend, or family member disappointed that they didn’t achieve their resolutions for the previous year. And I’m equally sure that many of us have experienced this disappointment for ourselves. At least, I have.
On the last day of the year, I often wonder how many people are actually happy about the resolutions they made and what they achieved for that year. To me, New Year’s resolutions don’t serve a good purpose. If you had a great year and achieved all that you wanted to achieved, you didn’t do that because of the resolutions you made. You did that because of yourself. If you had a bad year and didn’t achieve any of the resolutions that you made, you will likely only feel disappointed, which is something that you set yourself up for in the first place by making resolutions. This is exacerbated if the resolutions were unrealistic.
One thing I’ve always tried to do is to expect nothing, and it’s served me well in many instances to lessen any disappointment. Applied for a fantastic new job? Don’t expect to get it and then if you do it’s a nice surprise. If you don’t, it’s no problem because you weren’t expecting to get it anyway.
In my experience, from setting my own resolutions in the past to seeing those of others, making New Year’s resolutions brings with it the expectations that we will achieve them. When we don’t – which I would argue happens more often than not – we are disappointed. This is all self-inflicted.
No resolutions means no unrealistic expectations, and less disappointment in life. And isn’t that better than being disappointed at the end of every year?
