I'll just say it. I don't like New Year's resolutions.
Each year, the New Year stares me in the face and I stare right back, head-to-head with all that possibility, all of those new leaves just waiting to be turned over. It's entirely intimidating to commit to one more thing that I'd like to change.
I'm pretty confident I'm not the only person who feels this way. So I felt especially vindicated by a project I caught wind of a couple of weeks ago, called Resolve to Maintain. The people who came up with Resolve to Maintain feel the way I do - that January 1 is just another day. Sure, yes, it's the first day of the year. But, December 13, just as an example, isn't really any less worthy.
The Resolve to Maintain project, started during the month of December, is "dedicated to recognizing parts of your life that you'd like to carry on into the new year." Instead of thinking about what you'd like to change, you think about what you'd like to keep the same. Some of the things that people have resolved to maintain include:
- Acceptance and openness with not having it all together.
- The courage I've had this year to try new things.
- My self-confidence.
As I looked through the variety of characteristics folks wanted to keep with them in the new year, I thought about a comment someone offered last week in response to my post about hope.
This person, who was depressed and suicidal after having experienced depression in the past, wrote that hope was a part of getting past the crisis of feeling suicidal:
"My hope was based on my past experiences of feeling well and non-depressed. I figured if I had felt OK before then my brain was capable of feeling that way again."
This person was able to get through a time of great difficulty by looking back on past experiences and using those experiences to inform thoughts about the future. They knew it was possible to get through, but went on to write: "For people who have not experienced recovery before, it would be harder."
Correspondence with people like this commenter has reminded me how much resolve it takes just to keep going. To me, then, Resolve to Maintain means something even bigger.
This new year, if you're struggling to keep going, resolve to maintain. Rather than looking for something within yourself to change, make the task of the new year using and building on the strengths that have kept you going so far.
Copyright 2010 Elana Premack Sandler, All Rights Reserved
