Failing, laughing, and trying again at New Year’s Resolutions

Good news! We’ve reached that time of year when new year’s resolutions are making their way towards being discarded as fast as a fourth child’s artwork sails into the recycling bin. Even if you already gave up on your new year’s resolutions weeks ago (dry January fail anyone?), you still have reason to keep reading.

Why? Well, hidden within every failure is an opportunity to laugh at ourselves and recommit to creating the success we’re striving for.

And couldn’t we all use some laughter right about now? The correct answer is yes.

Through interviewing people about their failed relationships, I’ve learned achieving success (regardless of whether we’re talking resolutions or relationships) has is a lot more to do with our ability to recommit to the process that moves us towards success than it is about our ability to move immediately from point A to point B without any stops in between. Let’s laugh together as this non-athlete attempts to use a sports metaphor to further illustrate my meaning, okay?

In basketball, it seems to me being able to dribble the ball has a lot more to do with whether we end up scoring a point than if we can stand at one end of the court and throw the ball to the other to sink the basket. Most people can’t make a basket from half-court, let alone full-court (can anybody do that? I don’t follow sports).

However, I believe it’s safe to say most people can dribble a basketball well enough to move towards the basket and eventually get close enough to shoot the ball and score the point. Success is the point, and the point is success. Get it? Was that too awful? I hope not.

Anyway, edging away from my possibly inaccurate use of a sports-related metaphor, have you heard the saying, “If at first, you don’t succeed you’re running about average”?

As true as I know this statement to be, I still hate it. Like you, I want to succeed the first time, and when I don’t, I’m not above putting on a pouty face, throwing a pity party, or tossing in the towel altogether. Having to do something repeatedly before we get the results we want sucks!

But here’s an idea.

What if this time we laughed at our failure to maintain our new year’s resolution(s), and instead of giving up, we gamely recommitted to trying again? What if we laughed at ourselves repeatedly and reached our goals by the end of the year or (even before), not by doing anything impressive, but through an unlikely combination of wry humor and raw determination?

Wouldn’t that be fun and amazing and completely worth the effort to keep going, even when the work feels impossible and it looks like we’re not getting any closer to scoring at all, but simply dribbling the big dumb metaphorical ball over and over again?

I’d like to think it would be, or we wouldn’t have taken the time to make those resolutions in the first place, right? So how about it, are you up for some laughter as we give those resolutions another try?

Let’s get to it!

Danielle Daily is an Author, TEDx speaker, and Host of The Suddenly Single Show podcast where she brings hope to the heartbroken every week through inspiring interviews released each Monday morning. Find The Suddenly Single Show wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts or TheSuddenlySingleShow.com.