Don’t be fooled by New Year’s Resolutions. They are crap as well as a trap! Understanding the difference between choices and decisions will allow you to avoid this dangerous trap, and set you up for true success surrounding a new years resolution. Staying true to my purpose of inspiring and encouraging with practical wisdom, please read below.
Understanding the difference between choices and decisions and how they relate to new years resolutions, and then taking action on this understanding will ultimately determine if win or lose in life and what legacy and story you leave behind.
Everybody carries emotional scars, hurts, baggage, pain, and deep wounds. What are yours? Have you been abused or let down by somebody you trusted? Have you loved with all of you and been stabbed in the heart (or back)? Has somebody you were close to been taken from this world too soon? Have you gone all in with a business idea only to have it crash, burn, fail and put you into massive debt? Did you not receive that promotion you know you earned? Did you awake Christmas morning to read a message from a great friend whose cancer has returned? Are you that friend who sent that message?
If the answer is yes, you have made decisions and choices around these events. What are they? Are you constantly finding yourself chained by destructive thoughts, behaviors, patterns and mindset as a result? Do you find comfort in alcohol, anger, drugs, rage, hate, pornography, guilt, pills, and _______(fill in the blank)? If so, how is a new years resolution going to remedy all of that?
Tweet: January 1st is just another day, new years resolutions quickly fade away.
A new year’s resolution typically is a choice (the selection between various options)(example: I choose to go to the gym today vs not go to the gym today) to behave differently momentarily. We make choices constantly throughout the day. Example, I chose to drink café con leche (spanish coffee) and eat tostada con tomate (spanish toast) every morning. I have the option to chose between various food and beverage options, yet choose to go spanish style every morning.
A new years resolution is a choice inspired by a social construct around time (Dec 31 to Jan 1) and a sheeplike mentality to follow the masses.
Unless a choice becomes a decision (I decide to live a healthy life)(example: the gym is an outcome that must happen and now happens. It is a result of a decision inspired by something greater than myself. Now there is no choice), it will not become an ingrained and wired habit.
Using my same example, I decided (based on continuing to choose) that Spain will permanantly play an important role in my life. It has impacted me so greatly that I made the decision to share it with others. That is part of the legacy I will leave behind that is greater than me. Now, what was initially a choice to eat and drink what I do every morning, is no longer a choice. It is a result that must happen, based off my decision that my legacy is sharing my Spain story to inspire and encourage small business leaders. It just happens. The consistent daily choice that created inspiration to decide has now become an unconscious habit. New Years resolutions (which start off as choices) do not evoke this kind of action and state of being unless they become permanent decisions.
Smoking a cigarette, going to the gym, being bitter, eating a healthy meal, drinking yourself to sleep, writing positive affirmations, living in anger and hate, loving unconditionally, eating a box of chocolate covered cherries in one sitting (still deciding if this is a good or bad choice), getting into debt, going on in on a business idea, popping some pills, completely paying off debt first start off as choices. Choices are not unsustainable for the long term and when they become the result of a decision to do life a different way there is a huge shift when that happens. When this happens these decisions create habits that become ingrained patterns of behavior, and as Tony Robbins says, “decisions shape your destiny.” These next 22 minutes may change your life. Watch below as Tony rocks the stage and shares with Al Gore (in the front row) why he really lost the election. Please don’t start commenting about electoral vs. popular votes that is not why Al lost, says Tony.
If you made a new years resolution, excellent! Do not feel bad about me saying that resolutions are crap. Make sure your resolution does not end up just a choice that the masses also make, rather a decision inspired by something greater than you. If it is not, it will fade. What are the daily habits and actions that are driven by decisions you have made? If these decisions have sucked, thus creating bad habits and patterns, you must change the pattern (decision), not the action (choice). Only when that happens will your actions be a result of new pattern in your life.
These are facts supported by human behavior and motivation, not my opinion. I know with absolute certainty this is true because I have made dozens of resolutions (choices) that have faded, as well, changed patterns in my own life (decisions) thus shaping my destiny.
None of my decisions happened on January 1 of any year. Remember, today is just another day, resolutions will fade away………..Wait a minute, I just realized I am sticking to inspiration, encouragement and practical wisdom, not poetry. Thats what happens when I get super caffeinated early in the morning. Happy 2016! Make it a year of decisions, not resolutions.
This blog is dedicated to the friend who sent that Christmas message.
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