AS IF WE NEEDED another “day,” we now have Quitter’s Day. I’d never heard of it until this year, but apparently, it’s a thing. It goes back to 2019 when Strava, a social network for athletes, did a study that showed by mid-January approximately 80% of people with New Year’s resolutions have given up. So somebody decided the second Friday of January would be dubbed Quitter’s Day.
One irony is that many New Year’s resolutions involve quitting something, like smoking or drinking or swearing… something they’d rather not be doing. But Quitter’s Day celebrates the quitting of the resolution. So, in many cases, you’re quitting quitting.
Anyway, if you made New Year’s resolutions, like actually using that gym membership, and you’re still sticking to it on this, the second Friday of January… consider yourself a winner. You’ve outlasted the majority.
However, if you’ve already resumed the behavior you were hoping you could leave behind, there’s still hope. Susan Goodkind Wideman, a Marquette Certified Mental Fitness Coach suggests it’s a “process” that can be started anytime, regardless of the date on the calendar.
“It starts with learning to be aware of your thinking and controlling your mind (i.e. mindfulness) and identifying what is really important to you (i.e. core values). And then it’s a daily routine of small steps moving in the direction that you want to go. Lasting change takes time, attention and consistent effort.”
Goodkind Wideman also says there’s a reason why your commitment to a resolution may have failed. “People relate to their resolutions as ‘tasks’ they have to do perfectly, rather than steps in the process of creating the life they want to live.” In other words… there’s no joy in doing tasks.
As far as making resolutions goes, Goodkind Wideman offers an alternative. “I think it’s a better idea to work on one’s mental fitness in order to create sustainable change in our lives. By this I mean having and maintaining a state of well-being and cultivating awareness of how we think, behave and feel; keeping our brains and emotional health in good shape.”
The old saying applies. Today is the first day of the rest of your life.
Our life pro sums it up. “If someone is unhappy with their current situation – why wait when they could immediately start to refocus and redirect themselves?”
Are you celebrating Quitter’s Day as a winner, or a quitter? Me? I’m waiting for Procrastinator’s Day.
Not a Quitter
By now you may be aware of all the attention given to Marquette’s Sunrise Guy… Bugsy Sailor. A segment about the resolute early-rising photographer ran on last weekend’s CBS Sunday Morning program and has been shared many times on Facebook.
In addition to introducing Bugsy to a national audience, the segment also featured a lot of Marquette and its people. The segment was a very professional presentation that captured both Bugsy’s commitment to his craft as well as the appreciation he engenders here in the community.
You may remember a post I did about Bugsy’s goal of photographing every sunrise for a year, beginning on January 1st, 2019. Well, he made it through the whole year, but he didn’t stop there. With the exception of one day, when his alarm didn’t go off, he’s kept the streak alive continuing to document every sunrise, still to this day.
Funny me. In my post about Bugsy’s pursuit, dated March 17th, 2023, I made the flippant, tongue-in-cheek suggestion that Bugsy had done enough. It was time to call an end to the morning madness and sleep in, for crying out loud!
Not everyone, possibly including Bugsy, appreciated my friendly advice and suggested I let Bugsy be Bugsy, and I should mind my own business. Geez. It’s not like I have any real control over what Bugsy does at an hour when I’m most assuredly still under the covers.
Anyway, as it turns out, he rejected my counsel, and nearly two years and more than 600 sunrise photos later, he’s national news.
Still, one has to wonder… why? Well, Bugsy has the best reason of all. “It never disappoints.”