At the beginning of the year, we humans seems to love, coming up with our New Year Resolutions. It’s seems by magic that the change of a few numbers on the clock that is our life should make us change our entire vision for the future.

If you’re waiting for the time to be right to make a list of resolutions, then I’m afraid to tell you that your chances of success are very small. It’s never the right time to do anything. To break it down in simple terms, A New Year Resolution is when you agree with yourself to change an undesired trait or behavior.

Here are 5 reasons why I believe New Year Resolutions suck and are sabotaging your success: 

1. You haven’t asked why

This whole resolutions game sounds good in theory. Other than it being a New Year, you really need to ask yourself “Why the heck am I trying to do this?” If you do want to change something about yourself then why haven’t you already taken action?

Focusing on changing parts of yourself that you don’t like and only committing to do so once a year is pointless. Every day you should be striving to become just a tiny bit better; not once a year where you come up with the dream and then sit on it until the next New Year.

I believe that you have the power to be so much more and that you need to finally find what is going to drive you. Once you know what drives you, you don’t need to bother with silly little exercises like New Year Resolutions that some of the failures you know like to indulge in for a few weeks.

2. Life resolutions are way more powerful 

My advice would be: Whatever everyone else is doing, do the opposite. In the case of resolutions, everybody else is indulging in them, so I think you should set a “Life Resolution” instead. Buck the trend and commit to lifelong action that is going to change the entire direction of your life.

Write down the parts of yourself you want to change and the tasks you want to complete, and blow those bad boys out of the water! Do it with a sense of courage and purpose. Visualise how fantastic your life can be.

3. You haven’t set small resolutions you can build on

Trying to set a resolution of going to the gym for the first time in ten years to get your health on track is just too big for 98% of people. When you wake up on Monday morning to get started something is going to get in the way, and you’ll be thinking that you can’t execute on your 2-hour session.

If I just told you to go for a 5-minute run every day instead, I’m sure you would probably give it a go. Chunk it right down and don’t over-think it. Don’t worry if you haven’t got gym clothes or a drink bottle; go as you are and build on your small successes. You can thank me later.

4. It’s easier to be comfortable

There’s a high probability that everyone around you is comfortable and damn happy about it. So if everyone else is comfortable, then there is a good chance that you’ll be motivated to do the same.

“The trouble with comfortable is that in at some destination point in the future you are going to crash and burn”

You are going to realise that this life hasn’t meant what you thought it would mean. This is a horrible feeling, and that’s what setting New Year Resolutions is going to give you. You won’t execute, and you’ll become comfortable.

Speaking from experience, the results that comfortable people get suck big time. You’re going to need a lot of junk food, sugar, and alcohol to help you keep aimlessly walking in the direction of the hopeless. That’s not you, so let’s get serious this year.

5. Your resolutions are all about you

Like a parrot, I’m going to tell you again that success is not about you. The problem with these ridiculous resolutions is that they generally focus on you and are all about you. What’s crazy though is that the success you are looking for is found in what you can resolve to do for others.

Are you going to inspire someone finally? Are you prepared to give all of yourself to make the world a better place? If you’re not, then unhappiness is almost guaranteed. No set of New Years Resolutions is going to fill that massive void that exists in your heart and mind because you haven’t yet understood that it’s not about you.

Don’t get angry that you’ve missed all of your New years Resolutions for the last five years; get angry that you still haven’t given every ounce of energy that you have to a cause that you care about. Get angry that you are still being selfish and focusing on yourself.

I’m sitting here in an office, on a hot Australian day sweating my ass off so that I can bring you the advice that I think will finally get you to take action. I’m going to keep chipping away at your mind until I strike gold and you get the point.

I want the rest of this year to be a joy for you, and that will only come if we throw away the short-term success that is feeding dopamine to your brain along with your social media notifications, and we focus on the future of you.

You were chosen to be here and to be a person of influence. It’s no mistake that you are on a site full of game changers who want to change the world and transform lives. Just being here though is not enough. I want you to share your story and everything you’ve learned.

I want you to be comfortable with being vulnerable enough to put all your cards on the table for the benefit and learning of others. If you were raped, beaten, cheated, lied to, stolen from, you got hooked on drugs, whatever you’ve been through, it’s time to stop hiding.

The world wants to get to know you, and they want to learn from you. Most of all, they want to be inspired by your story so that they can make it through the same challenges you have. What’s crazy is that all of our problems and disappointments are the same. Yours, mine, your neighbors are all interlinked. The majority of this pain is something that we are choosing to suffer from.

Your story is different, and that’s why you are here. You’ve given up on suffering, you’ve accepted the pain, and you want to rise up. You want to be an angel in the lives of others and make people smile.

“Those smiles you create are the currency of your newfound success”

These new smiles are at the root of what is growing inside of you and dying to be unleashed on the world. Don’t keep living in the La La Land that is New Year Resolutions. It’s been long enough, my friend. This year is your time to break through and crush your goals finally.

Are you going to decide today to make a life resolution instead? Let me know on my website timdenning.net or my Facebook.