We’ve officially reached the second week of January.
This means that most New Year’s resolutions are already in gear.
And the most common New Year’s resolution is easy to pinpoint as we can simply look to local gyms.
Their treadmills and machines, once frequented only by regulars, are now full of activity and people that might have never been to the gym before. It’s almost as if the onslaught of a brand new year is a strong enough push to get people to get out of their comfort zones and on to self improvement.
That is the beauty of a new years resolution.
But what most resolutions lack is also a common building block that pairs with success — which is consistency.
And if we look at consistency for what it is, a habitual process that becomes second nature once put on by routine, it will take roughly 60 days for a person to make a change permanent.
Which means that when people don’t have the keys or basis for making their resolutional shifts permanent life style changes, the percentage of how many new years resolutions fail becomes exceptionally high. As onlookers, we’re kindly looking at an 80 per cent failure rate by February as our friends hit the gym hard for a few weeks only to taper off by Valentines Day.
So what does all of this have to do with being an indigenous person that wants to set a resolution?
Sitting down and rehashing the past year can be a difficult task. Some times expectations aren’t met, some times they are exceeded, but for the most part, indigenous people in particular can feel the weight of the world press a bit harder.
It’s easy to lose touch with the things that are meant to be important and at the fore front as an indigenous person. It’s easy to forget that there is an unspoken duty to the earth and to ancestors that you’ve never met as an indigenous person. It is even easier to disconnect from what you’re doing because it isn’t what you want to be doing as an indigenous person.
It is even easier yet to think that you never asked to inherit so much responsibility as an indigenous person.
But that’s why, if following the Gregorian calendar as many have since the early 1500’s, you can offer yourself some clarity during this time of year. Although 80 per cent of resolutions fail, there is that 20 per cent that succeeds. On average, it takes more than 2 months or 66 days for a behaviour or action to become second nature.
And if your resolution is to learn more of your language, eat more traditional foods, declutter your bedroom or what-have-you, as an indigenous person you are more likely to succeed with exactly what was mentioned above — consistency.
