Simple Rules for Setting New Year's Goals

I recently read a Pickles cartoon strip that was eerily appropriate for this time of year.

The Pickles

Opal, the grandmother, looking at herself in front of a full-length mirror, declared to Earl, her husband, something to the effect that in the new year she was going to eat less, exercise more, lose weight, and generally be more health conscious.

Earl said, "That sounds hard!"

Opal replied, "My motto for the year is 'I can do hard things.'"

Earl walked away muttering, "My motto is 'I can hardly do things!"

A lot of people make well-intentioned resolutions that are hard to keep because they are unrealistic. Therefore, they don't accomplish them, they get discouraged, and they simply give up, usually sometime in February. For that reason, gym memberships are in high demand in January, but as the year passes, use of those memberships declines throughout the rest of the year.

If you've followed this blog very long, you know that I'm a goal setter. I make lists of my goals: yearly goals, monthly goals, weekly goals, and daily goals. As a result, I reach some of them. But others I don't.

Why not?

Perhaps some of my goals are too ambitious. For example, I might set a goal of losing 25 pounds before my next annual physical in February. I haven't lost anywhere near that much since I had a nearly two-week war with a kidney stone, during which I lost 20 pounds. After I had won that battle, however, I quickly gained it all back. And I certainly hadn't set that as a goal. It came easily and without effort.

But I've achieved some of my goals, or resolutions, certainly far more than if I'd never set any goals at all. As some wiseacre quipped, "If you aim at nothing, you'll hit it."

Another bit of advice is not to set too many highly detailed goals, but rather to set only a few broader ones.

So in that spirit, this year I'll still set goals for myself, but I'll follow that advice. And I'll reach some of them because I'll be realistic about my chances of achieving at least some of them.

Here are a few of my goals, and I hope they'll be an encouragement for you, my readers, as you look into setting your own goals for the new year.

1. To eat better and lose some weight--if holidays and church potlucks and invitations to dinner guests don't interfere.

2. To exercise more, walking when it isn't raining, too cold, too hot, or too humid. Or unless there's a good sports matchup on TV, like the Braves versus the Phillies.

3. To read more and more seriously--as long as my vision doesn't get blurry and when I'm not reading Pickles cartoons. (Brenda, my sister-in-law, is my major antagonist in this battle because she's gotten me books of collected Pickles strips the last two Christmases. And now even my social media feeds are "feeding" me more of them!)

And there you have it. Few. Simple. Not overly detailed. Realistic and reasonable. Doable.

I think I'll reach one or two of those goals. Dare I say all three?

All of this is written tongue in cheek, of course, a lame attempt at humor. But in all seriousness, it's important that we set goals for the future.

What are your goals for 2026?

May you do as well as or even better than I do!