Can We Just Not with the Resolutions?

We’re going to be a bit controversial here. Yes, a new year is looming with all of its bright and shiny wonder. Yes, you’re inclined to make yourself a million promises about all the things you plan to do better/differently in the year ahead. Yes, you’ll mean all of it. But can we just not?

Goals and resolutions are great. They serve a purpose. They motivate and inspire us to step out of our comfort zone and ask more of ourselves. And that’s wonderful. But they also come with high stress and pressure and inevitable disappointment at times. More than that, there’s a fundamental assumption with most New Year’s resolutions that what you currently have and who you currently are is insufficient. We respectfully disagree with that assumption.

Just look at you. You’ve shipped a loved one overseas or off on training exercises. You’ve lost a job or found a job or fought to keep a job under less-than-ideal circumstances. You’ve kept children or pets or plants alive for an entire calendar year with less support than you really needed. You’ve gone to school or taught yourself New Math so your munchkin wouldn’t fail out of school. You’ve made five billion meals. Volunteered in your community. Set the alarm for o-dark-thirty to squeeze in a workout.

You’ve picked up an entire life and moved it elsewhere to start anew (or are bracing yourself to do just that).

You are a no-nonsense, get-it-done, make-it-happen, freaking miracle. A force of nature. A perfectly imperfect master of this crazy military life. As. You. Already. Are. You don’t need to be revamped, reworked, or reinvented.

What you do need is maybe take a brief pause. A moment to look back at this past year. A chance to take in what you rocked and what you survived. All the things that should have left you sobbing in a corner but didn’t. The times you gave support when a fellow military spouse struggled and needed a hand. The thousands of ways—large and small—that you stepped up and did what needed to be done.

You want to start the new year kicking butt on new habits and such? You do you. But first, take a moment to appreciate the magical, wondrous creature you already are.

MILLIE is an online community and digital marketplace that connects members of the military and their families with specialized knowledge and trusted resource providers to alleviate the stress of PCS’ing. Check out MILLIE’s Installation Guides, their network of Veteran and military spouse real estate agents, and MILLIE Scouts, their on-demand task service comprised of military spouses.