I think Crock. I really do. The advertisers love it of course. The entire diet industry runs 1,000 ads right after new years all screaming about New Years Resolutions. I usually lose 3 pounds watching these ads because they make me puke up my dinner. I am sick of 'em.
You know the song, "So this is Christmas and what have you done?" Beatles, wasn't it? That song sets up our thinking. So we start with, "Not much. I haven't lost the weight. I haven't exercised. I haven't stopped swearing. I haven't saved money. I haven't stopped saying I haven't..."
Then we all eat and drink to excess on December 31, wake up on January 1 puffy and bloated to be greeted with the barage of ads, "Are you puffy and bloated because you ate and drank to excess last night? Make a New Year's Resolution to buy our product (or join our program) and you won't be puffy for long!"
They are playing on our desire for a better life and the tradition of waiting until January 1 to do something new with ourselves. What's wrong with Feb 1 or April 1?
Reaserch has shown that the majority of resolutions, especially diet and exercise resolutions, fail by March 1. And then you are left with feeling like a failure, sitting on the couch, packing on the pounds and being beaten to death by the Guilt Fairy (I hate that old hag, she visits me a lot too. I'd like to take her magic wand and stick it up her...)
But I digress, I was complaining about something (what else is new?). Oh yes, NYR.
I made one a long time ago and it has never failed me. I made a resolution to never again make another New Years Resolution. And I have stuck to it ever since. The concept is a mind game designed to set us up for failure. And let's be honest, that is what most of us do - fail. The aftermath of the failure is ugly and damaging. And I for one do not feel like feeling like a failure right now. Solution? I stopped setting myself up.
So if there are things you want to do to improve yourself, fine. Start today. Don't wait for January 1 and then fail by March 1 and wait another 9 months for another January 1 to try again. Accept your failure (which I should start calling "setback") and try again - quickly. Next Monday, not next year. And don't stop trying. The worst thing would be to stop trying which will only give those advertisers the edge.
If you keep trying, then the next New Years you can laugh every time you see those commercials and say to the television, "Puh-leeze. That was so LAST YEAR."
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