HOPE SMITH
editor-in-chief
hope.smith393@my.tccd.edu
New year resolutions end where self-sabotaging begins. I write from a place of understanding this concept, four weeks after beginning the new year. It was all so easy to think about, hunched under a table with friends eating grapes and cheering on 2024. The few hours after leave you in a determined mood and anything is possible with that kind of motivation.
But time passes and that motivation packs up faster than a classroom ten minutes before the end of a lecture.
This happens every year without fail. There are days dedicated to it, in fact. As tribute to the steep drop from the highest hopes people set for themselves, one might unconsciously opt for Quitter’s Day, the second Friday in January. If one is feeling a little bolder, National Ditch Your Resolutions Day falls on January 17th. Unlucky for TCC to resume classes on this day, by the way.
Don’t let the pessimism and lack of drive take away from the goals you set for yourself, though. We develop an “all hope is lost” mindset not long after we see the trouble ahead of us. And life gets in the way, things happen and resolutions are the last thing we want to think about.
But these self-sabotaging behaviors take away from a chance at change, and it is not so easy to see it at first.
Psychology Today explained that the most common forms of self-sabotage could look like procrastination, perfectionism, relationships, work, finances, time and change.
How many times do you feel you pushed your resolutions to the side for those listed reasons?
Sometimes, we do not take our success seriously enough. I think there is a disconnect between New Years resolutions and success because we look at resolutions as a year-long attempt at a goal and it becomes dropped because that success only comes after 12 months of working on it. Taking them seriously means knowing when you are holding yourself back.
Habit building is incredibly important in this process because it highlights how you will be able to function in society. Your habits reflect who you are and what you are willing to do.
It was recommended by Mandy French from Medical News Today in the article “Self-sabotage: Why it happens and how to overcome it” that circumnavigating these habits could include setting small goals and seeking support.
Imagine if you were to break your resolutions up smaller and readily achievable? It might also leave less room for procrastination because the pieces can actively be worked on to gain a sense of completion.
It feels more discouraging to try a resolution assuming you’ll stick with it for six months, only to forget and beat yourself up for it.
As an expert in procrastination and distraction, I can easily say working on smaller, shorter deadlines for what I want to accomplish gives me the drive to complete one thing to do another. It’s important that you are doing what works for you.
You deserve the things you want this year and the feeling of accomplishment if you too decide to take on the grapes-under-table tradition with resolutions you are prepared to take on in the new year.
