The New Year's Resolution Delusion
We all know of the New Year's resolution: I pledge to do X starting January 1st of next year. It's a great ploy to allow yourself to continue doing what you've been doing for another few weeks. So many people say, "I'm going to lose X number of pounds next year, but I'm going to wait until January to start because I want to enjoy a few Holiday meals."
You know what this means? This means that we don't really want to do X. Whatever we resolve to do is not important enough for us to begin today. We say it's important, but in effect, we declare it worthless because of the wait. If I need to make a change in my life, I should commence that change today.
Procrastination may play a large role in this problem--I say that I want to be Y...that is the goal of my life, but yet I fail (and sometimes refuse) to make the changes to attain goal Y. And I foolishly look back at the past years and wonder why I'm not there yet.
Our delusion lies in the fact that we trick ourselves into believing that delayed change is as valuable as actual and effectual change. We end up saying great things while slipping more deeply into muck.