Resolutions Are Dumb

Nothing Changes By Staying the Same

If You Want Different Things in Life, Get Busy

As we’re just mere days away from the end of 2022, I mentally prepare myself for the onslaught of “New Year, New Me” posts on social media. Constant posts about how 2023 is finally going to be your big year. Lots of awesome, positive changes coming.

A new job or career. More money. The dream vacation. Someone to end your lonely, single life, and perhaps to go on said vacation with you. Working out hard to look good in your bikini or man-thong while soaking up the sun in Tahiti.

It’s all bullshit. Ask anyone who thought 2020 was going to be their big, magical, wonderful new year.

Wait, you can’t ask just anyone. Some of those people are dead. Over a million Americans died from the Covid pandemic. The majority of them because they were too stubborn to change. No mask, no quarantine, no pulse. I knew a few of those people, personally. Emphasis on the past tense, KNEW.

That’s the problem with assuming your life is going to magically change because the calendar changes from December 31st to January 1st. New Year’s Resolutions are absolute garbage.

Unless you also take the steps to change.

Change doesn’t just happen. You have to want it. You need to do different things daily and have patience with the process.

Say, for example, you are hoping that 2023 is your big game-changer year to finally start earning good money. But you’re not open to fine-tuning the ol’ resume or attempting to try something in a new field. Ideally, you’re just hoping to win the damn Powerball or Mega Millions.

You’re looking for the easiest-to-do, best-case scenario. It still won’t happen if you don’t buy a ticket.

Change only occurs when you are willing to do the things to initiate that change. You cannot realistically expect different, better results if you are not open to doing things differently and trusting the process.

If you’re in a horrible, loveless, going-through-the-motions marriage, it’s going to stay the same. A New Year isn’t going to magically transform your spouse into a more attentive, caring, supportive, and passionate mate. You’d likely have to go to couples counseling to see actual change.

Or leave. Some partners aren’t willing to do the work to improve in the areas you’d like them to. You won’t magically find Mr. Right when you’re married to Mr. Wrong. Most won’t change on their own and become better people simply because it’s January 1st.

Another one of the biggest New Year’s resolutions is getting in shape and losing weight. Who hasn’t gotten busy over a year or two and neglected their overall appearance and health? *Raises hand

New Year, New Me! Let’s get back to the gym. Hell, let’s JOIN a gym.

That’s why gyms are so packed the first week of the new year. People legitimately want to change. Enough to work on their fitness for a bit. Until it becomes a pain in the ass to go regularly. Well, 2024 will be here before we know it, right?

The same holds true for writing. If you desire to improve and to be seen more, you have to do more. If you don’t make additional time to put into your craft, you’ll likely experience the same results or similar to what you had in 2022.

I started as a brand-new writer almost exactly a year ago. I wrote my first blogs at the end of 2021. By January 1st, I was ready to blog for income. As a new member of the Medium Partner’s Program, it was time to kick some ass.

How did that work out for you, Jason?

It didn’t. At least not initially. I made 99 cents in January on Medium.

I didn’t know what the hell I was doing as a new writer. I wasn’t sure how to navigate the ins and outs of Medium writing. The topics I wrote about were boring. My titles were terrible. Why wasn’t I gaining hundreds of followers a day?

Because I sucked. I was inexperienced. I thought about giving up after the first month. I only posted one blog in all of February, because I was that discouraged.

Then I snapped out of it. I didn’t tell myself to wait until January 1st, 2023 to give it another go. None of that “New Year, New Me” bullshit. I had to own my mistakes and work harder and smarter.

I put in the effort. I did the reps on the keyboard far more than I did at the gym. I improved as a writer and blogger substantially. I met the best people I’ve met in years, here on Medium. Our writing community is fucking awesome.

Slowly but surely, things improved. You can see that as I took things more seriously, read as many articles as I could about writing on Medium, and put some of those strategies in place, results started to follow.

After having some initial success in March and especially in April, things started trending down. This was my first lesson about having to constantly strive to improve rather than assuming I’d always have bigger months as more time went by.

I read up on more strategies. I came up with others on my own. I tested them all and committed to writing and publishing at least one blog every day. Then I upped the ante to two a day.

I started following 120 Medium writers every single day and grew my following from a few hundred to thousands. It’s all helped produce the kind of results I strive for.

I could have pulled the plug back in February. Nobody would have blamed me for giving up and focusing on better-paying content writing. But I didn’t want that. I wanted the change I’d been seeking.

So I did things differently. I didn’t sit around, waiting for good things to magically happen to me, and then complain when that change never happens.

You shouldn’t either. Follow your dreams, find your passion, and attempt to do better every single day. Even if you improve by only 1% a day, think about how your writing will be 100% better after three months.

Change will come for you in 2023, but not because it’s 2023. It will happen because you realized that you wanted improvement in your writing and you’re willing to kick some ass to get there. I believe in you. &:^)