Expectations and why I resolve to change nothing (Pt.2)

I got a lot of love and a ton of flack on Part 1.  Here’s Part 2, and I don’t care that I’m publicly responding to a reader.  Appreciate that your resolution is not “I’m going to stop eating after 6pm.”  You resolution is “I’m going to stop eating after 6pm – FOREVER.”  I want you to seriously think about the commitment you just made and how easily this plan can fail.  If you have company on Wednesday are they also going to want to eat only 5 almonds and a cup of yogurt at 4:30pm and nothing more for the rest of the evening?  Do you think that girl you like may want to have dinner later than say, a retirement home’s pre-American Idol rice pudding service?  I don’t mean to be a dick, but your plan is irresponsibly formulated in a bubble of existence that likely does not resemble your life, and surely never will.  And frankly, you probably have no business being that guy who doesn’t eat after 6 in the first place.

What I’m driving at is that buying a ninja costume does not make you a ninja.  Being a ninja (I'm told) is a series of commitments and actions carried out over years of self-discipline, quiet introspection, and thoughtful observations.  You actually need to start to diary your activities mentally or otherwise and begin an arduous diagnosis of what steps you made today in the opposite direction of ninjadom before you can seriously blowdart someone in the neck from 100 yards.     

For those that plan to quit something and have no substitution element that is reasonable and immediately actionable, we’ll chat around Jan.8 and I would love to hear how that went.  Make it small, but make it a commitment – not a vow.  Don’t just promise to go for a walk after dinner rather than having a cigarette or a beer.  Be the crazy guy that walks 3kms every night to buy a pack of gum from a particular variety store.  Listen to an audio book on the way and hook the dog on the leash.  BOOM!  Build it in to your daily process.  Don’t just say I’m going to run for 45mins every morning.  Say that tomorrow I’m going to wake up and put on my running shoes and go outside for 10mins.  Once you start creating a web of interlocking and dependent resolutions, the house of cards is only one breeze away from putting you back to square one – or worse.  Build it in, but don't build it big.  Great things come from small actions, taken over time, with careful iterations.