by Todd Pheifer

Created on: December 29, 2008

"I resolve this year to quit smoking, lose 50 pounds, finish my novel, find a cure for cancer, be nice to animals, reduce my carbon footprint, do less shopping, and find a peace solution for the whole world."

Yeah, right. I hate to call you a liar, but unfortunately you have a long, torrid history of making empty promises and living out well-intentioned failures.

To start with, it is probably valuable for us to be a little bit frank. People are lazy. Sorry, let me take that back. SOME people are lazy. When they make resolutions during that traditional time of empty promises (January 1st), they are largely making themselves feel better about the life they are living. As humans we always want to feel like we can make ourselves into a "better" person, and indeed we can. However, we sometimes like to talk about making ourselves into a better person more than we like to actually do it.

Also, we must address the issue of accountability. Who will hold us accountable for our newly-minted resolutions? That's right. No one. Unless we ask someone who is close to us to put some strict regulations on our life to the point where we are asking for an intervention, our promises will not be filled unless we find the energy to do it ourselves. Again, if we didn't do it before, why would we do it now? This also feeds into the issue of procrastination, which is something that we excel at in our daily lives. Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow.

There is also the issue of scope. We sometimes tend to think big, which is good because at times it has fueled advances in human achievement. However, that doesn't mean that are we are always realistic about our goal-setting. The resolutions themselves may be well-intentioned and noble achievements, but milestones that are too large may lead to personal discouragement. When people feel like they are failing at something, it is much easier to abandon the project altogether than revise our ambitions.

Finally, there is a issue of timing. The long, cold winter is just getting into gear for some people. This means that personal energy is low, outside temperatures are low, and sometimes ambition is low. Going jogging when it is 30 degrees is not the most appealing activity. Therefore, that yearly resolution to lose weight may be ill-timed. January 1st may not be the best day to make a new resolution, particularly if people want it to actually come to fruition.

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