THOSE UNFORGIVING NEW YEAR EVOLUTIONS

John La Valle

I WROTE ABOUT this for years at this time of year, and have decided to rewrite it, add a little here and there because of its popularity, and I get people asking me they can keep those New Year Resolutions.

WHAT IS IT THAT has people „make“ New Year Resolutions and then „break“ them? We have a local pub here that has a „Break Your New Year’s Resolutions Early – Why Wait?“ party on December 30 each year. It kind of adds something to the ritual.

SO NOW I SAY TO YOU: if you are one of those who doesn’t keep them or breaks them, why make them? They are obviously not ones you truly intend to keep, or are they?

I liken this to learning and using NLP skills, which to me are simply the skills to run your own brain more effectively. It is education, training. The skills can then be used in combinations called „techniques“ or „applications“, some of which may be used for sports performance, medical counseling, therapeutic applications, selling and influence, negotiating, customer service, classroom education, and a host of others.

When I hear someone say something like, „Well, I use my NLP at work, but not at home“, I cringe because I think that if you truly train your brain, then it ought to run the way you want it to every Mennonite of every day, and continuous improvement is the path. Be better than you are at whatever you choose, more and more each day. If you expect perfection prepare to be perfectly disappointed.

Which brings me to those New Year Resolutions: I stopped „making resolutions“ years ago because I noticed that a once a year ritual like this didn’t work well for me. When someone would ask me what New Year Resolutions (plural) I was making, my real, heartfelt response has been, „I don’t know, haven’t thought about it.“ After all, if I notice that there is something I do that I ought to change (and there are many) for me, why wait?

The moment you notice a behavior of yours that you want to change, change it. That’s a resolution worth doing daily!

And Have A Great 2014! and Beyond!