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“We are what we repeatedly do.”
-- Aristotle
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Happy New Year!
Do you make New Year resolutions?
I do.
This year, on January first, my list looked pretty typical. I vowed to exercise more, eat less, keep my office cleaner and keep my email inbox emptier.
What about you?
Will my resolutions fade out within a month or two? Probably.
Do I mind? Not really.
I figure even if I only exercise thirty minutes a day until mid-February, I’ll still be healthier in 2007 than I would have been without the New Year’s resolution.
I figure that if I only clean out my email inbox a few extra hours this month, I’ll still get rid of many 2006 messages I no longer need.
Some people are talented at establishing new habits. They pick one routine, stick with it for a month and then find that it is ingrained – a new habit that is a solid part of their repertoire. Their temperament – based on genetic endowment, biochemical tendencies and environmental history – makes it more natural for them to establish consistent routines.
Other people, like me, get bored with routines after a while or find it extremely difficult to avoid the slow slide towards irregularity and disorganization.
We seem to need a fairly frequent influx of new techniques, fresh resolves and renewed vows to maintain our motivation and progress.
My experience shows that some people are temperamentally able to move in linear, regular paths towards their goals. Others, like me, move forward in fits and starts, in cycles of zest and discouragement.
It has taken me along time to accept that I will never be a paragon of regularity and consistent discipline. Yet this does not mean that I should give up on my efforts of self-improvement. As I have accepted my tendency to fluctuate in my resolve, I have found it easier to manage my cycles of productivity.
I now know that when I fall off my New Year’s resolution band wagons I must look for new means of transportation towards my goals. I will get bored with routines and need variety. When my resolution patterns peter out I will seek new techniques to re-inspire myself.
When my daily trips to the gym lapse, I will join an exercise class. When my in-box fills, I will schedule a kamikaze marathon clean-up session.
Fits and starts and ebbs and flows are my natural rhythm. But I still resolve to be regular and methodical; because there is no doubt that the turtle beats the hare in the long run.
In short, accept your temperament, but even if it doesn’t come naturally, try to implement steady habits.
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