New Year’s resolutions have a bad reputation.

But actually, that’s most of the time only because once they were shared it can become evident when implementing them starts strong and tends to fade away after a while.

The same happens with many other resolutions made during the year.

One can blame the daily schedule, the ups and downs of one’s moods, the sense of no progress, or whatever else comes to mind.

However, the most probable cause is that one hoped they would work despite the existing commitments. The ones that are especially relevant in this case are all those that exist to keep the status quo.

They compete with new commitments and can be hard to spot.

It may take a few rounds of resolutions until one starts to spot what keeps us going in another direction. A good start is to pay attention to one’s arguments when two priorities are competing for our action. If the memory of the resolution fades away, then emotions can reveal what has a higher priority than the resolution.

As much as we may want a resolution to work, we must find the one we must let go of.