New Year’s Day 25: To Maintain Intentions and Tweak Goals

As of Dec 29^th the year not yet finished and my 2025 aspirations were not yet begun. I don’t make New Years resolutions. The fact that, according to Pew Research, maybe 10% of adults follow through on resolutions dissuades me from using that word. I have strategic goals and intentions. The reality that adults who declare new year intentions abandon them within one month boggles my mind!

“Those over the age of 55 are 3.1x less likely to set New Year’s goals when compared to younger adults” according to Drive Research . It seems that few of them are bachelors and have less time and energy to develop or improve themselves.

As with many United States “holidays,” I approach New Years Day as a common day. Then and now I am a middle-aged bachelor who maintains habits for strength training, cooking and reading. I struggle with a weekly artistic writing habit and being assertively sociable.

Although my weekly record with intentions, a pillar one of strength training, wavered more than I wanted it to, I lifted weights and rode my bicycle twice a week. As with most adults, fitness was a goal; during my 40s I based my intention for strength on the U.S. Army Special Forces standard.

With a tight budget, I knew that my meager gear and lack of a gym membership would preclude my attaining that. It was an aspirational ideal.

As I’ve aged, in my 52^nd year I relaxed my Special Forces-based strength training. I gained a tire on my gut. My honorary sister (blood cousin) who works in healthcare laid out the fact that aging entailed a slower metabolism. Even with the small gut, I acted on my intention well.

I have a weak link in the chain of my annual intentions. I am a very quiet extravert who aspires to “Never Eat Alone” as the book by Keith Ferrazzi extolls; that is difficult! Success oft comes from who you know. I am eager to connect socially. But scheduling meals with peers or friends demands a surprising amount of energy, and maybe confidence or chutzpah in me.

Never mind New Years resolutions. Aspirations or intentions, incremental ones serve me the best. Research and polling results show that great or grand lifestyle changes crush people’s notions of the doable.