Choosing the Resolution Comes Before Keeping It
Once again the New Year’s Eve ball drops in Times Square in freezing cold, and once again millions of people make resolutions they won’t keep. Many of those resolutions fail before discipline is ever tested, because the resolution itself was the wrong one. It was too big, too vague, or picked without asking whether it fits the life you live.
Every January since I opened our first New York studio in 2010, I’ve watched people walk in with a resolution in hand. The ones who stay usually chose well. This article is about that step: choosing a resolution worth committing to. If you want to understand why New Year’s resolutions fail, or you’ve already chosen and want the step-by-step system for how to keep your New Year’s resolutions, I cover both separately.
1. Is It Small Enough to Start This Week?
Start with a simple goal you can commit to right away. Say you want to learn a new skill, like self-defense, so you feel more secure wherever you are. You go online, research which self-defense system fits you, read reviews of different schools, watch videos, and decide to learn Krav Maga. Many schools offer an introductory class so you can see whether the place feels right. Deciding is the first step, and booking that first class is what turns the decision into a resolution.
2. Do You Have Time for It?
A resolution has to compete with everything else in your life. Friends call to go out for drinks, a new movie comes out, work asks for more hours, a parent ends up in the hospital, and the list goes on. There are only 24 hours in a day, and most of them go to work, sleep, and family. Before you commit, look at your week and find the hours. If you want to learn Krav Maga, that means two or three classes a week you can protect. If you can’t find the time on paper in December, you won’t find it in February.
3. Can You Measure It on a Timeline?
A resolution without a time frame never ends, so it never feels finished. In Krav Maga, and in most martial arts, the time eventually comes to test for the next level. Testing shows the student and the instructor where things stand, which techniques work, and how much progress has been made. Nobody loses a test like that, because it isn’t a contest. It gives you a date to train toward, and you may be surprised how well you perform under pressure.
Look for the same structure in any resolution you choose. “Get fit” has no finish line. “Pass my first level test by June” does.
4. Can You Do It With Other People?
Share your goal with like-minded people who will support it, and when you can, choose a resolution you can pursue with them. When you learn Krav Maga, you train with partners every class, and some students stay after class to practice a new technique together. When you see others progress, you don’t want to be left behind, and that keeps you coming back on the days you’d rather stay home.
5. Will It Still Make Sense in March?
The best resolutions pay you back all year. Learning to defend yourself builds fitness, confidence, and awareness at the same time, and those carry into how you walk down the street, how you handle stress at work, and how you protect the people you love. A resolution that only makes sense on January 1 is hard to keep in March. Choose one that still makes sense when the excitement is gone.
Choose Well and Persistence Does the Rest
Choosing a resolution is about setting reasonable objectives you can live with all year, and perfection has nothing to do with it. Once the right resolution is in place, persistence takes care of the rest. If learning to protect yourself is on your list this year, our Krav Maga classes in NYC welcome beginners at our Upper West Side and Park Slope studios, and you can read more about our self-defense classes before your first session.
Do something amazing,
Tsahi Shemesh
Founder & CEO
Krav Maga Experts
Relevant Articles:
Why Do New Year’s Resolutions Fail?
The six reasons resolutions collapse, including the 60-minute plank challenge I took on the year my second son was born.
How to Keep Your New Year’s Resolutions
Once you’ve chosen, this six-step system turns the resolution into a routine that survives bad weeks.
Quitter’s Day: When New Year’s Resolutions Dissolve
Why mid-January is where most people quietly negotiate their way out, and how accountability keeps you in.
Questions About Choosing a New Year’s Resolution
What makes a good New Year’s resolution?
A good resolution is small enough to start this week, fits into the time you really have, has a clear time frame, and improves your life beyond January. If it passes those tests, you’ve chosen well.
Is learning self-defense a good New Year’s resolution?
Yes. It gives you a skill, a weekly schedule, training partners, and a clear way to measure progress through level testing. It also builds fitness and confidence, so one resolution covers several goals at once.
How many New Year’s resolutions should you make?
One, or two at most. Every resolution competes for the same hours and the same energy, and focusing on one gives it a real chance.
