Ted Talks: Putting Solution into Resolution! Let’s Go, 2021!

We’ll remember this year as the one with masks and mute buttons, with Zoom meetings and zapped-from- the-calendar events, with social distancing and societal anxiety—and with so many changes, stresses, and disruptions that slapped the living shish kebab out of us.

We all, to varying degrees, endured trying times and out-of-this-world angst. And while we don’t know exactly what awaits us in 2021, we do know this: We’re stronger for making it through this year.

So maybe instead of feeling like an unlucky armadillo on the wrong end of a Newberry Road speeder, we should channel the strength that we have built. It’s natural to feel beat up and worn down. It’s natural to downshift into survival mode, and it’s natural to want to wallow in queso dip.

But maybe we should look back and celebrate how mighty we are, how resilient we can be, how downright dogged we can be when crap morphs to crappier and crappier escalates to crappiest.

After all, it’s the time of year when you start sketching out a new set of resolutions. Ease up on the enchiladas! One scoop of ice cream instead of 37! I will drown my stress in the lap pool rather than the martini glass!

While I’ve thought about and written about New Year’s resolutions many times during my health-writing career and my yo-yoing health, I’ve probably had the same amount of success as an FSU fan in a section of Rowdy Reptiles. I tend to follow the same pattern as many resolution-makers do: Pick a goal, stick to it for a bit, lose momentum, fall prey to a pile of fried pickles, abandon the resolution.

So that’s why I’ve concocted the perfect cocktail for making a New Year’s Resolution:

1. DON’T MAKE ONE

Don’t use January 1 as some grand declaration of a new health habit. Just pick a small thing you want to start, and commit to taking that little action. One day at a time. No massive mountains to climb.

2. MAKE 12

Instead of trying to tackle a whole year, make a commitment for a month. Then choose another goal
for February and another for March and so on… What habits will stick? All of them? None of them? Hard to say, but chances are, choosing mini-goals over the course of a year will help make major changes.