In the past, during December, I used to think about a post I’d publish on New Year’s Eve or January 1st. While being quite good posts, mostly these were New Year Resolutions posts – the standard fare about goals, commitments, transformation.

But knowing my own habits, knowing how many of my own New Year resolutions I’ve broken over the years, this time I decided to skip the resolutions post on January 1st when we’re all overfed with resolutions. Instead, I’m doing it on January 2nd, the day we return to work (well, me, anyway).

This by itself has its symbolism – why give empty promises on a fume-infused night, promises we’re going to break in a few weeks, when we could do something intentional on every other day instead?

So my simple New Year resolution is to show up.

Whatever I would decide to do, I’m not going to give myself bombastic promises, calendar milestones, or big to-do lists. Instead I will just show up, even for a little while, but with the necessary frequency – once a day, once a week, once a month – depending on what the activity is.

Even a little bit of doing during these show-up moments will bring significantly bigger impact than making encompassing promises and blowing them up later.

This isn’t about iron will or unwavering commitment. It’s about consistency. About setting an intention rather than making a resolution.

An intention is a guiding principle that grounds you in the present. It’s less about what you’ll accomplish and more about who you want to be.

With an intention, you can make mistakes without giving up. You might stray or get off track, but you can always reset. You don’t need to be perfect; you just need to know where you’re headed and why.

Ask yourself what are your goals?

Want to improve your fencing? Show up to practice. Not every single day with maximum intensity. Just show up with your necessary frequency – three times a week, whatever works. Some days you’ll fence great, some days you won’t. Doesn’t matter. You showed up.

Want to get stronger? Show up to conditioning. Not with a detailed 12-week program that requires perfection. Just show up regularly. Do the work. Some weeks you’ll progress, some weeks you won’t. You’re still showing up.

Want to improve your mental game? Show up to mental warm-up. Not with elaborate visualization routines. Just show up to the process of building confidence before addressing weaknesses. Some days it will click, some days it won’t. You showed up.

The showing up is what matters. The consistency over time, not the perfection in any single moment.

This works because change doesn’t happen through grand promises made on January 1st. Instead it happens through ordinary actions repeated on ordinary days.

We should look inside ourselves and recognize that we don’t have to wait for January 1st to start fresh. We can begin again on any ordinary day. We can always choose who we want to be and act accordingly.

The new year doesn’t have to be about total transformation. It can be a time when we remember that every moment can be an ending and a beginning. And we get to choose which one we embrace. It can be today, on January 2nd, and then again tomorrow on January 3rd and then again and again, any day of the year, for this and upcoming years.

So my promise to myself this year: show up for whatever I decide – it doesn’t need to be perfect. But it does mean to show up consistently and with intention.

I recommend you start thinking in the same lines. You don’t need a resolution. You need to show up. And then – you’ll get there.

Image: by Marco Verch licensed under CC BY 2.0 license