Overjoyed not Annoyed by New Year’s Resolutions

By Josh Thomas, Partner, Leader Health & Wellness Practice Area

Ah the new year (and is it a new decade, too, or not?)… Crisp, cold air. Slightly longer and growing days. And New Year’s Resolutions — those wonderful opportunities to re-align our life goals with our actual life habits. Resolutions are just a great opportunity to take a look at ourselves, aren’t they? Well, that may not be how all of us look at them this time of year.

If you are a consistent gym visitor, you may already know what I’m about to say. Working out in the month of January sucks. And it’s not just because you’ve gotten fat and happy over the holidays and the early morning alarm sounds more obnoxious than ever. You’ve conditioned yourself for that. No, what makes January workouts such a pain is not the swollen belly but the swelling attendance.

I work out early with a core group of about 15 others at my gym. Same folks are always there. Except in January. That’s when the New Year’s Resolution crowd shows up, believing that this time it’s gonna be different. This time I’m really gonna to get in shape! Fifteen turns into 35 and quick energetic workouts become, ahem, an exercise in line waiting.

It’s a pain. Fortunately for the diehards, it’s typically a short-lived frustration. In fact, according to a recent article on MSNBC.com, “almost one-third of us break our resolutions by the end of January, and more than 75 percent call it quits by the end of March.” And that’s good news for me, right? Maybe not.

The fact is, I spend a lot of my time personally and professionally writing about and advocating for healthier, happier kids and families. I should be happy to see new folks attempting to improve their health — for themselves and for their families who love them. I’m embarrassed that I lost sight of that.

So here’s my new year’s resolution (better late than never): I will be encouraging of the newbies to keep it up rather than rolling my eyes and muttering to myself, Don’t bend over like that, you’re going to hurt yourself. Or, No, the dirty towels go over there!

When appropriate, I will help them safely work into a routine that helps them achieve their goals, rather than waiting for them to fail and leave so that I can get back to achieving mine.

And here is what I’m asking of you: If you are a resolution maker, I’m encouraging you to stick with your goals or to re-align them (after a month or so, this would be a good time to think about that) to be more sustainable over the long term. Maybe 4 marathons this year was too big a leap, but one 10K is doable!

And if you’re a regular at your gym, yoga studio, or park, cut the crowds some slack. After all, we’re there because we enjoy and benefit from the experience. Shouldn’t we want others to realize the same? Wouldn’t we all be better off if we were ALL better off (physically and mentally)? I think so. In fact, I’m sure of it. Whose up for cross-training tomorrow morning?