February is not only the month of love, but also the month of failed resolutions. All of those epic things that people committed to are put on the back-burner, where they will sit until revisited  next New Year.  

One of the most popular resolutions is to eat better and work out more. The recreation centers become filled to maximum capacity with the resolution-motivated go-getters. Waiting for an elliptical machine becomes a competition and every inch of the gym is occupied with the people ready to live up to a New Year’s challenge.  

However, as we advance further into the  New Year, these resolution-setters begin to disappear. The gym is a great place to measure this lack of dedication and gives a gym rat like me some time to reflect on the validity of their decision in the first place, as these new gym goers slowly disappear.  

There is nothing wrong with making new commitments, but when those commitments are based on an emotionally charged holiday and only last through January, they are completely pointless. From a personal perspective, it is definitely annoying to navigate a busy gym, waiting in line for machines filled with people who are only there because of their dwindling resolutions.   

If only these people would remember that change can begin on any day. The first day of a new year is no different than any other. We should not choose goals for ourselves when we only hold on to them long enough to make it through the tradition of choosing a resolution, and end up intruding on other people’s routines in the process.

Why not commit to a new goal that can be made at any time, rather than a superficial one that will probably fail?

Real goals take commitment and creating them just to go through the motions is not a good enough reason to make a change. Real change takes place by committing to it for the sake of it, not because of a holiday.

Superficial reasons to change yield superficial goals which in turn lead to abandoned milestones. Maybe the reason resolutions are so easy to let go of is because the majority fall into the pattern of leaving them behind, and so there is no reason to feel bad about quitting.

At least one good thing about the resolutioners quitting is that there are finally elliptical machines available at the gym again.