It has been said that lottery is stupid people's tax because most people can't figure the odds involved in the game. The human mind can process only that much computations into the future and accept only a limited amount of variables. Due to this inefficiency people gamble, play the lottery or believe in soulmates. We neglect the trillions of different possibilities because our primitive auto-piloted belief system renders logic useless when the data are overwhelming.
New year's resolutions are much the same. People believe that in the new year, despite of all the innumerable events that will take place in our life, we will "keep it together" and pull through our personal promises. We neglect though that the more complex the task the least likely is to be fullfilled.
Even a simple action such as "brushing teeth everyday" can be hard to follow if one has not been brainwashed to do it since early childhood. Some people even try to quit smoking when their health is in dire condition, and yet they fail to do so. Building a new business, getting married, following a certain diet, reshaping our bodies are all complicated tasks that involve innumerable variables, often beyond our control.
Believing in New Year's resolutions is much as the same as believing one can see into the future. This is why most people begin with a simple task (such as going to the gym in order to build a six pack) and by the end of the year, they feel fortunate if they visit the premises at least once a week in order to keep appearances with their colleaques there.
It's not like we don't want to do fulfil these resolutions. It's just that so many things happen in life, unexpected things that derail the entire process. We can try to lose weight but we forget that our bodies are build to keep us fat. The body doesn't care about appearances. It only cares about survival. If it senses to lose fat it will try to reprogram our cells to maintain even more and burn even less. Add to that the unexpected accidents, a break up, heavy load at work, the coming of a new member in the family and one can understand how easily everything can fall off track. Most resolutions fail because we think we understand the variables involved when in fact we have no clue.
Life is not something to be planned at the beginning of the year. Instead of putting up New Years resolutions, we are better off to sticking to the "good" things we have been doing for years. It would be easier if we say "keep walking at least 3 hours a week" when we have been doing this habit for the last 5 years. Making new resolutions demands reprogramming of our entire lifestyle. We can't just change one thing and expect everything else to fall in place.
For this Year's resolution you can promise to yourself to stop making resolutions all together and accept life as it comes. Part of the fan in life is the unexpected. Whether we talk about relationships or employment, too much planning renders something boring, tedious and even obnoxious. We are beings that mine energy from the new and the unexpected. This is why we became explorers and travelers. This is why we can never quench our thirst for life and always seek for more. Why go against the grain when the answer is right in front of us?
I personally do not like to believe in the future because you never know where life can take you, you don’t even know how one tiny thing can change your future, a lot of the times things do not really go as planned . We are never even promised a tomorrow
The meaning of the butterfly
That was very well said..end the holiday period resonance rings true for me..
haha. Somehow reading your articles makes me laugh. I have a friend who's crazy about new year's resolution. And your article definitely brings home the point about new year's resolution. Happy holidays everyone!
I am glad I bring joy in your life
I think all of what you say is absolutely true. You are absolutely right. Thank you very much for the useful share...
Lol, new year resolutions only last for a week and after that it is gone. The problem we have is that we set high goals that we can't really attain normally for example a drug addict saying he would stop taking drugs without any help or therapy.
I am going to make winning the lottery one of my New Year's resolutions.
Wow! This is a really good post, haven't thought about it. Everything written is logically true for me atleast.
exactly!! i consider new year's resolutions something like an excuse to make things better next year and to somehow justify what we haven't done this year! Basically as you said life is life and everyday something unexpected might happen so you can exactly program everything just go with the flow and try out the best you can do!
A person is curious by nature. We try to understand and explain everything new.
Much of our thoughts intersect @kyriacos , i have spend time writing this article about science of new year resolutions
https://steemit.com/life/@theversatileguy/science-of-new-year-resolutions-2018
I wish i could help as many people as i can.
wishing you the best of success in 2018
I am just stopping in to wish you and your family a very wonderful start of your new year 2018 you have my upvote
Favorite line from a professor was "If you want to be a professional, start today."
Same goes true for everything else in life.
Ha, you know that thing of lottery right, that you cannot expect to win if you never play? But I agree, most New year'Year's resolutions are bound to fail. However, for those who actually want to try something and are tired of failing, why not skip the resolutions and try these New Year's Intentions instead. Happy New Year 2018!