Re:Ask HN: 2018 resolutions?
by Afforess on Monday January 01, 2018 @12:38AM
(#16044866)
I don't like resolutions. They are lies we tell ourselves, false promises from our present self about our future self. If you actually believe you can accomplish your resolutions, you don't need a manufactured holiday, like New Year's, to decide to change your life. Any day of the week should work. Don't wait until 2018 - start today.
[ Parent
| on HN ]
“Don’t wait until 2018 - start today.”
Posted on January 1st, 2018 for the majority of the world. ;)
I get your point, but resolutions are powerful tools. Ever walked into a room and forgotten why you did? It’s because you artificially create a new cognitive context when you walk through a door. A new year is similar. It may only be symbolic, but shedding dead weight and planning for a new year is an important exercise for many people - successful goalsetters included.
> Ever walked into a room and forgotten why you did? It’s because you artificially create a new cognitive context when you walk through a door.
Wow I did not know that there was an explanation for this. Makes sense. :)
Wow. Well said. It's so true. If the resolutions were so important to you, you wouldn't have waited for a specific date to start.
Re:Ask HN: 2018 resolutions?
by kaskavalci on Friday January 05, 2018 @12:30PM
(#16080011)
One should draw a line in sand. Of course any millisecond might be your resolution. But we are humans, not machines. Motivation derives from importance. Anything you value is good enough.
Re:Ask HN: 2018 resolutions?
by JSONwebtoken on Monday January 01, 2018 @02:10AM
(#16045085)
If resolutions were so powerful, why not have monthly, weekly, daily, or hourly resolutions? Imagine the things we could accomplish if all it took was to attach a goal to a discrete unit of time. My new day resolution is to get some more sleep.
Say you want to quit smoking. If you do it with a weekly resolution, you can basically give up any moment and start over next week. So there is little motivation to keep your goal. Monthly resolutions are a bit better, but still wouldn't work for smoking. Yearly resolutions seem to work best.
A lot of companies set quarterly goals, that's probably not a bad idea. Also, goals need to be etched into habits to work, and values determine goals, so it's worth introspecting all three at a time.
I set monthly reminders to keep me on track this year and they helped a bit, I might try weekly too this year. Course correcting once a year is definitely not enough.
Re:Ask HN: 2018 resolutions?
by gcatalfamo on Monday January 01, 2018 @05:15AM
(#16045531)
Because that would mitigate the motivational effect.