Try January – An Alternative Resolution
By: Kevin Jones
Senior Consultant
3rd January 2020
3 minute read
The New Year begins and perhaps you’ve made a promise to yourself with a traditional New Year’s resolution. Perhaps the festivities during the winter break were a little too indulgent and your resolution is a commitment to an alcohol-free Dry January. Personally, I prefer the less well known Try January. One definition of resolution is “a firm decision to do or not to do something” and this can feel that you’re setting yourself up for failure if you don’t quite complete your chosen task. On the other hand, one definition of try is “make an attempt or effort to do something” which, at least to me, feels like setting yourself up for success. The outcome is likely to be the same but if you treat your chosen quest as Try January rather than as a New Year’s resolution then the feeling of giving it a go, but perhaps not quite succeeding, is likely to be much more positive and much better for your wellbeing.
Let me put this into context. This year my daughter has decided to try to achieve zero waste during January. She knows she’s facing a difficult challenge given the amount of plastic packaging and single use plastics so she’s treating this goal as a Try January task rather than as a New Year’s resolution. Even before beginning this task our family has already changed many of our habits; we take reusable bags to the supermarket, we use a doorstep milk delivery service in reusable glass bottles and we refill water bottles. We even use loose leaf tea in reusable tea bags! My daughter is trying to take this even further; she’s found a zero-waste refill shop, she’s using a solar powered charger and she’s even ordered a bamboo toothbrush. She knows these aren’t perfect solutions because we have to drive to the newly-discovered shop and some of her purchases have to be delivered but she’s trying to make a difference knowing that not quite completely achieving zero waste will still be better than not trying at all.
I hope this motivates you to find a goal for Try January and that just leaves me to wish you a Happy New Year.
The New Year begins and perhaps you’ve made a promise to yourself with a traditional New Year’s resolution. Perhaps the festivities during the winter break were a little too indulgent and your resolution is a commitment to an alcohol-free Dry January. Personally, I prefer the less well known Try January. One definition of resolution is “a firm decision to do or not to do something” and this can feel that you’re setting yourself up for failure if you don’t quite complete your chosen task. On the other hand, one definition of try is “make an attempt or effort to do something” which, at least to me, feels like setting yourself up for success. The outcome is likely to be the same but if you treat your chosen quest as Try January rather than as a New Year’s resolution then the feeling of giving it a go, but perhaps not quite succeeding, is likely to be much more positive and much better for your wellbeing.
Let me put this into context. This year my daughter has decided to try to achieve zero waste during January. She knows she’s facing a difficult challenge given the amount of plastic packaging and single use plastics so she’s treating this goal as a Try January task rather than as a New Year’s resolution. Even before beginning this task our family has already changed many of our habits; we take reusable bags to the supermarket, we use a doorstep milk delivery service in reusable glass bottles and we refill water bottles. We even use loose leaf tea in reusable tea bags! My daughter is trying to take this even further; she’s found a zero-waste refill shop, she’s using a solar powered charger and she’s even ordered a bamboo toothbrush. She knows these aren’t perfect solutions because we have to drive to the newly-discovered shop and some of her purchases have to be delivered but she’s trying to make a difference knowing that not quite completely achieving zero waste will still be better than not trying at all.
I hope this motivates you to find a goal for Try January and that just leaves me to wish you a Happy New Year.
