Why I Hate New Year’s Resolutions
It’s a new year! A new month, a new start, slate fresh and clean to start over right? I mean, there is a percentage of people who do wholeheartedly feel this way about New Year’s Day who will successfully make resolutions that they will stick to. I commend you. But for me, sweet baby jaysus it’s just an opportunity to highlight how glaringly inept I am at keeping a resolution, in a month I’d rather sleep through, which of course then feels like soul crushing failure.
How I felt about going into 2024.
New Year’s resolutions also couldn’t come at a worse time of the year if you ask me. I’ve chosen to live on an island (UK) that has basically no sun for several months of the year, and January, to me, always feels the worst, the gloomiest of the dark months. The coziness of the cold and dark weather leading up to the holidays has worn off, Mariah and Bublé have been neatly stacked in the back of the freezer, and all that’s left is putting away all of the dusty decorations, credit card bills from the holidays and what feel like, the shortest days in all of the world.
January is also home of two spectacularly depressing 21st century man made holidays. Blue Monday - known as the most depressing day of the year, the third Monday in January, where debt is high from the holidays and days are short, and a new one I found researching this blog, Quitters Day which is the 2nd Friday in Jan, where people are, you guessed it, most likely to throw in the towel on their New Year’s Resolutions.
Neither of these are actually real- well the verdict is out on their ‘realness’. But what is real, is the pressure we put on ourselves to make some magical changes overnight, structured amongst some pretty non-conducive elements (lack of sun, lack of money, post holiday high come down etc. etc). Why do we put ourselves through it?
What’s also real is Seasonal Affected Disorder, which conveniently is acronymised to SAD. Do check out the hyperlink for NHS guidelines. Do get support if you need it. I personally have to sit in front of blinding x number of lumens daylight lamps for periods of the day to make it through these ‘dark’ months.
Particularly as a mother, I feel these pressures ever so strongly- comparing who had the more idyllic Christmas photos, who’s matching pjs were the cutest, who had the best parties and who’s kids were bouncing up the hill in their freshly laundered and pressed uniforms on Jan 2nd when they had to go back to school. Not mine I tell ya! We had to wake ours up, I dug through a pile of laundry (at least it was a clean pile) found some uniforms and pushed them up the hill bleary eyed with wrinkled (but at least clean) clothes and unbrushed big hair. We’re keeping it real. We do not have it all together. We’re doing our very best.
So for now, here’s the only resolution I plan on making… I am going to try and be kind to myself. When a negative disparaging thought comes into my head (which is more regularly than I’d like to admit) I’m going to counter it with something positive. Even if I don’t believe it in that moment- fake it until you make it right?
