Another year, another opportunity to claim your new year resolutions. Oops, getting that sinking feeling in your stomach? The feeling of yet another annual failure looming on the horizon. Have you ever considered why resolutions (especially New Year resolutions) so often fail? Probably not…most people try to forget they ever made a resolution or express resignation about the outcome.
Resolutions
What are resolutions? A resolution is a spoken or written decision to commit to some future action. “My resolution is to get into shape and lose 10 pounds.” The interesting result of a resolution is that it strips away the future for any other choice or option to achieve what we want.
Let’s break this out, “…get into shape…” When this is spoken or written, we must create a mental model of getting in to shape. We go first to our experience and background knowledge to formulate a mental model of getting into shape. This is where the trouble begins. Getting into shape could be any number of things, but if there hasn’t been success in mapping “…getting into shape…” to fitness goals or there is the one time it worked, then future success in less likely.
The same notion applies to losing 10 pounds. First, we must create an mental image of ourselves as we are and this first mental representation of ourselves will be the strongest. Then as we try to ‘see’ ourselves as we are hoping to be, the “old us”, the part about losing 10 pounds, keeps us from seeing the “new us”.
So, between the gap in ‘…getting into shape…’ and the image of the ‘…new us…’, frustration, discouragement and resignation grow…to the point where we try to forget we even tried.
I’m proposing an alternative to resolutions. An approach that creates space and something new in life. A declaration of the event/state/experience you want to create for the future.
Declarations
Declarations are used in life for many occasions, for example:
- In religious writing : “Let there be light: and there was light.”
- In political discourse: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…” or declarations of war
- Public statements: husband and wife or baptism
- Legal: guilty/not guilty at a trial, declaring property or declaring personal effects when entering a country
- Personal assertions: I feel great. I have everything I need to succeed.
These declarative statements are speech acts which bring something into existence which never existed before. Creating a declaration generates possibility to bring the thing declared into reality, in accordance with the proposition.
Our behavior is wired to statements of declaration. When a phrase is spoken, we create a mental representation of the phrase. “I feel great”, will evoke an image that’s unique for each individual and creates the space for feeling great to be created.
When using resolution you have to deal with the same old stuff you’ve always dealt with. Dress up the same old problem. Through declaration, you create something that has never existed. Immediately you’ve generated a space for the declaration to unfold into. There is no ‘old’ to deal with.
So, how does this work as a stand-in for a resolution? It’s as simple as this:
“I declare I will lose 10 pounds and get into better physical shape.”
By declaring, you are creating a new reality for yourself and your life.
When you declare something, does it mean you don’t have any thing else to do? No! All a declaration provides is space…you still have to do the work to “…lose 10 pounds and get into better physical shape.” The declaration provide access to more options in creating your new future. The space a declaration allows you to operate outside the limits created by a resolution.
Where a declaration opens new freedoms, a resolution keeps you trapped in the same old box. I invite you to try it out…make a resolution and create a declaration. And, watch for the results you get with each. And, when I mention results, I mean on every level of life.
Summary:
Declarations
A declaration is a speech act that changes reality in accordance with the declaration.
A declaration creates a new context for reality.
A declaration provides a space to create something different through choice.
A declaration is a fertile ground for ‘out-of-the-box’ solutions.
Resolutions
A resolution is a commissive speech act that commits a speaker to some future action.
A resolution operates within the same context the problem/issue/conflict was created.
A resolution attempts to strip away, make a decision on some action.
A resolution limits possibility of alternative innovative action.
