What’s your Resolve? What is the one solid choice you choose to hold firmly to? A new year is here and the sales sharks are already circling in the retail waters. They are poised and ready for the faintest scent that your wallet will open once again with another “New Year’s Resolution” impulse.
Once again, millions of people are vowing the same vows as the year before to binge themselves into habits and lifestyles that are completely opposite of their normal everyday lives. My question is why? What’s different this time? What is the drastic, life altering event or mind-shift that happened in the few short hours between falling onto your pillow in (for many) some level of an intoxicated state; and when you woke up on January 1st with a headache?
Now, I’m not saying that making a new year’s resolution is a bad thing. What I’m saying, is that making a list of things you want to do differently, isn’t what’s going to get you there. A resolution, by definition, is a FIRM decision to do or not do something. That means 100 percent commitment, without fail for any reason. There are incredibly few things in life that anyone, myself included, are 100 percent committed to. Being “all in” as many would say, is something that takes a mindset that understands sacrifice. You can’t be fully committed to anything without being willing to give up something else in equal proportion.
Several years ago, (not on January 1st), I made a resolve to stop doing things that drive me away from happiness and contentment. I made a commitment to myself to truly embody the words I’d half-heartedly thrown around for years. My resolve? “Other than my wife and my children, I refuse to give a **** what anyone thinks about me.” Seem harsh? It is; as it should be! This resolution has come with great sacrifice. It’s cost me numerous relationships, business deals, and opportunities, but it has been completely worth it. I can say that with confidence simply by looking at the people who told me making this decision was foolish. For the most part, they’re right where they were years ago. Still whining and complaining, blaming other people, and still miserable.
What a resolution ultimately boils down to is finding a deeper level of contentment in an area of your life. For me, I had to stop listening to what others thought my life was supposed to look like. That included friends, family, coworkers, everybody. The resolution I made has led me to a place of contentment in my life that has been truly life altering. To everyone reading this, I hope you find the same level of contentment in your life that I have found. Be committed to your happiness and don’t let anyone stand in the way of you getting it. Here’s to a new year and a new resolve……. If you know what yours is, I’d love to hear it! Comment below and let me know your commitment to yourself!
