My Top 5 reasons why I don’t set New Year Resolutions

Happy New Year friends, family, followers and everyone else. It was not our making that we made it through 2019 alive, it was God’s. So all credit goes all the way to Him as we pray He continues to bless us with even more blessings this year.

Last year was one of my worst blogging years ever since I embarked on this sweet journey of writing down the conversations of the little people in my head, but I promise to do better this year.

So the year has started and I am sure most of you have already set your New Year resolutions; goals you want to achieve, habits you want to drop, the weight you want to lose, drinks you want to stop drinking, foods you want to stop eating, people you want to cut off and those other things that don’t mean much to everyone else but you alone.

Whereas I’m honestly rooting for you to achieve everything you have set, I for one don’t believe in setting new year resolutions (don’t scream, I’m not that special, aha) and before you judge me because I know that is what humans are really good at, first read through my Top 5 reasons why I don’t set de resolutions.

1. I don’t want to be part of the bandwagon

The world over, billions of people set out to have New Year resolutions. New Year New Me messages are shared even though there is literally no difference in the person they were on December 31 and what they are on Jan 1. I don’t want to be associated with that group of people.

2. I don’t want to put unnecessary pressure on myself

I am in no race with anybody. Unlike other people, I am one person whose productivity goes to near zero when I am working under pressure. I suck at working under pressure I don’t even include the usual ‘I can work under pressure’ tagline on my CV. Aha.

Now imagine telling myself “Oh Norman you’re going to build a house and marry in the next 365 days.” I’d rush to find a woman, then a piece of land, then have contractors do sub-standard work because I have told them to have it done in such and such a month.

Final product? Shoddy work, unhappy marriage. I want to take my time. The only pressure I want is the one pushing water through my showerhead, and the one my beloved Arsenal puts on opponents.  

3. I don’t want t rush God so I don’t put a timeframe to what I want to do.

I am a staunch believer in God and I believe that whatever is mine will be mine at exactly the time God designed it to be. Me saying, “I want to do this, this, and that THIS YEAR,” feels like I am rushing God.

Yes there are things I want to get but I can’t say, “I must get this thing this year,” because what if I don’t get it? Then what? I just keep doing what I’m supposed to do an put my focus on what I want to get, and when I get it whether this or next year, I will have it in my heart that this is the time God wanted me to have it, for as the saying goes, “God’s timing is perfect.”

4. I want to surprise myself.

Everyone wants a surprise but not everyone gets it. I’m in the group of people that don’t get surprises so every now and then, I want to surprise myself.

There is no greater feeling than looking at your achievements at the end of the year and saying to yourself, “Damn! Who would have thought that I’d be having this and that this year?”

I feel surprised and too damn proud of my skinny self because I did not expect to get it, didn’t even commit myself at the beginning of the year to get it. That is when I pat at the back of my head and say, “Well-done this year Norman, well done! On to the next year then.”

5. New Year resolutions simply barely work.

Statistically, over 80% of people who set New Year resolutions abandon them by latest Feb, otherwise, some do so even earlier than that.

So why should I set something I know I am not going to follow? I would rather take each day of the year as it comes because indeed, however much we plan, every single day will come with its own challenges. That is life. It is random.

At the beginning of this year, I promised myself to write one article each week, and yes, that is some kind of resolution but I’m sure I’ll be rethinking this promise by February. Why? Because I simply don’t make resolutions.