Page one—it’s always had a certain appeal. It feels clean, fresh, and doable: a tangle free, crisp white space waiting to be filled with our experiences, accomplishments, and new beginnings.
We wake up early before the first day of work, we buy new clothes for the first day of school, and when the clock strikes midnight on January 1st, we make a resolution to change our future. It’s a new start, and for one fleeting moment, it makes us feel limitless.
“I’m going to get all As this year.”
“I’m going to impress my boss and climb the corporate ladder.”
“I’m going to eat healthier and get fit.”
“This is the year I finally write that book.”
New year, new me. It all sounds beautiful; it’s a great dream. But as soon as something goes wrong, as soon as we get that first B, make a mistake at work, grab that extra slice of pizza from the box, or do anything else that seems counter to the original goal, that clean page we dreamed up gets dirty; it’s now marked with errors, and so (intentionally or not) we figure: “what’s the point now? I’ll have to start again…later.”
We give up on the promises we make to ourselves because reality’s weight feels an awful lot stronger than the vague dream we built on a whim. Instead of trudging through, we sink back—waiting another 365 days until we can turn the page again to another fresh start.
This is the reality for 80% of people who set New Year’s resolutions, and it’s why I don't believe in them.
If you have a resolution to be better, to do better, or to create a future that’s a different color from your past, then you have to set aside time to show up and do that work now. Change does not wait for a clean slate. Whether today is day one or day 287, it makes no difference.
Progress should be constant.
A one-time declaration is not how progress happens. Naturally, we are a society of quitters, of procrastinators, of people who prefer promising change tomorrow rather than today.
“I’ll do it in the morning…when I’m fresh.”
“I’ll start that diet next week.”
“I can’t right now. I had a tough day.”
“I still have time.”
We conserve our energy, and we hold back. Routines take hold, and that big resolution we made up last month starts to look a bit foggy. Every time we get a sub-par score, every time we trip, our confidence dies down a bit more, and soon that big dream of ours looks like an impossible uphill hike.
A resolution without resolve lacks the foundation for change, and it’s setting you up for failure.
Setting goals is vital to building success, but goals are not a one-and-done, once-a-year type of commitment. Your aspirations must be specific, recognizable, and broken up into bite-sized chunks. You cannot have progress without progressive focus.
If you suddenly create a massive self-expectation on January 1st, with no buildup or no planning, the “I don’t feel like it” mindset is going to win. If you don't have a plan, you won’t be making a resolution; you’ll be making a wish.
December is left to the planners.
Big dreams are messy, failure and roadblocks are inevitable, but if there is still some room left on the page you’re on right now—if there is still some time left in today—then you must recover what you can and keep fighting because some of the best results happen when we commit to “just one more.”
If you’re serious about change, if you’re committed to really becoming a better version of yourself or creating something new—whatever that might mean for you—then you cannot wait until January 1st to make that commitment. You cannot wait until the next first day.