The New Year Cliche: How to Deal With the Failures of Resolutions

In preparation for each New Year's Eve, it is tradition to line up a few goals to strive for in the following year. It is also tradition to expect failure. The mindset is prevalent in concern to New Year's Resolutions. The real idea behind this concept is resolutions are meant to set the tone for the upcoming year. What do we really accomplish when we set a goal with an expectancy to fail?

The power of the mind

For this, I would like to use two women I have encountered in my life as examples of the power of the mind. When each met me, they were smokers. I am a non-smoker. The first of these two women never smoked around me. I only found out she smoked by accident. Immediately she quit cold turkey on her own. The second claimed to be an occasional smoker, but the car ashtray suggested different. This woman quit slowly over a period of months. During both of these relationships neither one picked up another cigarette for years. When the relationships ended both immediately went back to smoking. Neither were pressured or asked to quit smoking, but both did on their own. Though, each used a different method to stop, both went back to smoking in a flash. They also shared a bond in that each one had a health condition where doctors had warned them both to quit. The fact that they did quit, shows the power of mind a person can possess. The fact they resumed smoking shows the lack of faith they possess in themselves even in the face of serious medical consequences.

The broken promises of New Year's resolutions begin with a lack of faith.

Consider the sports analogy of the concept of a winning mindset:

The good ones always give their best.
The great ones always find a way to do better.