Why wait a whole year to change something that could have been changed mid year or just whenever?

The best resolution I made was on Jan. 1, 2015. My resolution was to have no resolutions at all.

I had a habit of coming up with a list of things I wanted to do every first January. Most of these resolutions I made never made it past January because I either lost motivation or I had planned to achieve many goals within a short period, which proved unrealistic.

Forty five percent of Americans usually make New Year’s resolutions, fitness being on top of the list, according to Statistic Brain Research Institute.

I am not against making resolutions. What I am not for is the timing and the reason for the resolution.

Since I have a resolution to not make resolutions on the first of every January, I walked into 2016 just like I would Feb. 1. It was just another day. Granted, I thanked God for enabling me to see another year.

Setting new goals should be a thought-through process. They should not be made hurriedly or without researching what it entails to achieve the goal.

“Too often, resolutions are decided upon by looking at other people’s expectations or by reading a magazine that tells you how to ‘get fit by summer,’” according to an article on lifehack.org. “These all sound good on the surface, but typically a resolution is based on what you think you should be doing, rather than what you really want to be doing.”

Whatever we set our minds to do should be for ourselves and not because someone else is doing it. We can be motivated by others to do something, but when we do certain things because so and so is getting certain results, that is where we go wrong.

For instance, I want to maintain a healthy diet not necessarily because I want to stay skinny, but because I want to have a healthy inside as well as a healthy outside. I want to go to the gym and work out not because I want to look like Beyoncé (disclaimer: I would not mind having that hour glass figure), but because I want to stay fit and healthy.

I urge you to think through the decisions you make. Sometimes we make quick decisions because we fantasize about the end result. It is important to know how much work goes into achieving any goal and remembering how the process is important. The process births patience, discipline and growth in character.

Former football player and coach Tom Landry once said, setting a goal is not the main thing. It is deciding how you will go about achieving it and staying with that plan.