Do you make new year’s resolutions? Do you carry through with them or seem to somehow slip back into old habits within the first week or month? Have you ever made a quilter’s new year’s resolution? Do you have quilting goals, such as, organize and turn your scraps into quilts, learn to free motion quilt your own tops, start or join a quilting group that gives donation quilts, resolve to finishing those UFOs, start a quilting business, take a class to improve your quilting, go to a retreat, learn a new quilting technique, or commit to more dedicated quilting time.
According to Wikipedia: A New Year’s resolution is a tradition, most common in the Western World[1] but also found in the Eastern World, in which a person resolves to continue good practices, change an undesired trait or behavior, accomplish a personal goal, or otherwise improve their behavior at the beginning of a calendar year.
Although worthwhile aspirations, it seems to me that New year’s resolutions are made by many, achieved by few and quickly forgotten by most. Some are made by momentary good intentions, but lack deep consideration or planning to carry them through. I considered that I could be speaking from personal experience, though, so I researched further on success rates.
According to the American Medical Association, approximately 40% to 50% of Americans participated in the New Year’s resolution tradition from the 1995 Epcot and 1985 Gallop Polls. A study found 46% of participants who made common New Year’s resolutions (e.g. weight loss, exercise programs, quitting smoking) were likely to succeed, over ten times as among those deciding to make life changes at other times of the year.
A 2007 study by Richard Wiseman from the University of Bristol involving 3,000 people showed that 88% of those who set New Year resolutions fail, despite the fact that 52% of the study’s participants were confident of success at the beginning.
Perhaps my observation was correct after all.
Any decision to improve one’s life, accomplish a goal or make a lifestyle change requires a change of mind. A repentance. To repent means to change your mind, which will change your behavior. It’s a change of mind-set, of how you think. If a person, for instance, wants to quit smoking, they must decide to quit, and then they must tell themselves “I don’t smoke anymore” rather than “I’m trying to quit”. See the difference? One is a commitment, a change in how you think; the other is still hanging on to the old behavior. 100% commitment is easy; 99% is hard.
My resolution for 2024 is to eliminate sugar from my diet. My mindset must be “I don’t eat sugar” or “I don’t eat that because it has sugar in it”.
And I resolve to get that pile of quilt tops quilted that have been stacked in my longarm room for at least 2 years (or more).
What’s yours?