I don't know about you, but it seems to me that any time you label something a New Year Resolution you are almost certainly dooming it to failure. And not just a quick 'oh well, I tried it for a few days and it didn't work out' kind of failure but the kind that is a slow, lingering death of a failure that you end up feeling guilty about for months even though it was pretty much inevitable that you wouldn't enjoy or otherwise get into it in a lasting way. And all the advice you read in the self-help magazines (yes, I admit to sometimes reading RedBook at the Leon's) about how to make resolutions successful - like roping in a friend or family member to do it with you, or publicly stating that you are doing it - only serve to make the eventual failure that much more pain(and guilt)ful.
I'm certainly not suggesting that we shouldn't use the beginning of a new year as the impetus to make changes for the better in your life - I am re-committing to my workout routine, to not eating 4000 calories per day (particularly when made up mainly of tamales, roast potatoes, stuffing, gravy and apple pie), to putting dirty clothes in the laundry bin and to remembering to put the green waste out on a Tuesday night so it can be collected on Wednesday morning (mental note - better do that after writing this blog), for example - but rather let's just do them because they're the right thing to do and avoid labeling them and hence burdening them with the expectations the come along with being just another set of 'New Year Resolutions'.
But more than that, I challenge you to take a risk this year. Not a life-threatening or physically dangerous kind of a risk, of course, but rather something that takes you outside of your comfort zone, that challenges you to learn something new and exposes you to new experiences and opportunities. Taking a risk can take many forms - perhaps you try a new subject at school for the first time, or you decide to change careers, or you agree to take on a new responsibility at work, or you decide to jump on a plane and fly to another country to meet with a girl you've been exchanging letters with for 6 months and you think there might be a chance she'll want to take the relationship to the next level (yeah, that's what I did back in 1992 and it turned out to be the best decision I had ever made) - and can lead to something incredible in the short term and help define your future path in the longer term in more ways than one.
Of course, it can be a bit scary and give you butterflies in your stomach - you're in uncharted territory, you're doing something new, you might not succeed - but it inevitably causes you to dig deep and learn more about yourself as well as the thing that you're doing. In fact, if you don't get butterflies in your stomach sometimes you're probably missing out on an opportunity to grow in some shape or form.
But what if I fail I hear you say? Well, who cares if you fail? Failure is relative anyway - how can learning something new and about yourself ever be considered a failure? And, you know what, my experience has been that invariably you end up succeeding because if you're prepared to take the risk in the first place you're also prepared to see it through and figure out how to succeed anyway.
So, on this 11th day of January 2011 (a cool symmetrical 11/1/11 as written in the UK) think about what risks you could take this year. Start as small as you like, but do something different from your norm and see what happens. You never know where it could end up taking you.
Just don't call it a New Year Resolution.
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