A Perspective on New Year's Resolutions

I'm a big fan of the Bike Snob NYC blog. While his perspective can sometimes be controversial, this was written in a recent blog post, and I think it's a truer way way to position "new year's resolutions" than many want to admit.

"Change is a cumulative process and it consists of subtle gradations; it's not something that happens annually at the stroke of midnight. Nonetheless, just as the bicycle industry releases new models every year, we undertake "resolutions" as though we can change ourselves in annual increments. Ultimately, whether it's a bike or ourselves, the result is the same: we wind up with a bunch of hastily-applied "improvements" of dubious value which will most likely be phased out by the time the next model year rolls around. Still, it's human nature to create reference points and plant metaphorical staff gages in the river of time, and so as the new year approaches we find ourselves reflecting on all that has passed."

The message to me is it is good to have a long term perspective on your goals, look at them often and set a goal when it seems approprite, not only at the end of each year.