After reading the January 1 page in A Daily Dose of Now, you might wonder why someone who says they don’t make New Year’s resolutions would host a 100-Day movement challenge like the one I’m currently hosting in the Mind, Mood, and Movement Facebook Group.
Here’s the page:
“To dream of the person you would like to be is to waste the person you are.”—Unknown
I stopped making New Year’s resolutions several years ago. I rarely kept them. Instead, I used them to punish myself, recalling my downfalls during the rest of the year. Without the burden of resolutions, I enter each year with more ease. Letting go of these torture lists allows me to change things that used to be on my resolution list. I no longer focus on my failure. Rather than dreaming about, promising to become, or trying to be someone else, I am learning to accept myself as I am. In the process, I am becoming the person I want to be.
Today’s Practice: Instead of making resolutions, take out a sheet of paper and list your traits. Include painful ones and those that bring joy. As you write, feel what arises in your body when you recall these hallmarks of who you are. Is what you experience pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral? Allow it to flow within you.
Isn’t the 100-Day movement challenge a resolution?
Sort of. But it’s much different from the harsh, shaming resolutions I used to make.
The challenge I’m hosting there offers a structure of support, community, and brainstorming. Unlike a “resolution,” it’s not about gritting it out or blaming ourselves for not being who we are.
In this challenge we start HERE where we are and accept who we are TODAY. From that place of acceptance, we decide what action to take. We use the energy of the group to move forward.
One of the group members participating in the challenge reframed it this way:
To me, a resolution is just a plan to fail. They are usually too vague ie. I’m going to get in shape- like that will happen overnight…. A challenge is short lived ie. 100 days, sure you can fail, but as you can see the end, you are more likely to succeed.
I would add that “succeed” is different for each individual. You choose what success looks like for you!
To the people who joined that Facebook group before I mentioned the challenge, if this isn’t for you (right now or ever), I understand. Challenges aren’t for everyone. Before my first book, Depression Hates a Moving Target, came out, I hosted the challenge in a different FB group a few years in a row.
Then, the books took over.
This year I’m hosting it again to find a balance between writing and fitness by doing the challenge alongside others.
Whatever you resolve or don’t or whatever challenge you take or don’t, may it result in a happy, healthy 2024 for you!
