New Year’s Resolutions? This is Why…

By Martie Hevia | Blue Beach Song™

New Year’s Resolutions are a part of our New Year’s Eve traditions, right up there with Auld Lang Syne, the kiss at midnight, and watching the ball drop in Times Square (NYC). But why should you bother making one?

It is true that everyone will ask you what your resolution is for the New Year and they will be happy to point out if you fail to fulfill it. But peer pressure is hardly why you should make or keep a New Year’s Resolution.

Resolutions are goals we set for ourselves to improve our behavior or our health, to make us or others happier, or to make us better people. But New Year’s resolutions are imbued with a certain solemnity and pressure to fulfill which leaves us feeling like failures or guilt-ridden if we fall short. Who needs that kind of pressure? Why do we bother?

Well, perhaps Aristotle had it right, because we must:

Man is a goal seeking animal. His life only has meaning if he is reaching out and striving for his goals.
-Aristotle

It is in our nature to set goals. It gives our lives meaning and purpose. It gives us direction. It gives us something to aim for. The destination or the goal is almost arbitrary, a reason to journey, a reason to strive, a reason to live. The important thing is to have goals, knowing that there is as much value in the journey as in the destination.

So, if you shoot for the stars and land on the moon… hey, you landed on the moon! Look around, enjoy the view, and shoot again.

Happy New Year!

Martie Hevia © 2009 | All Rights Reserved