20 Quotes from ancient philosophers on why you shouldn’t set New years resolutions:
From the beginning of humankind, people have learned through painful trial and error that behavior is not always logical.
You cannot will yourself to a habit just because you have a desire. It must be learned and developed internally before the external self can change.
Philosophers from the fourth century until today have reflected on this.
Interestingly enough, however, we still sometimes ignore this truth.
We set ourselves up right before the pit with unrealistic expectations. We put time constraints on goals when the reality may just be that we are not ready.
As the year came to a close, New Year’s resolutions took center stage.
But how many times has January come and gone and nothing about your reality has changed? You are just as hungry, just as tired, and with just as little time to start something new.
We go headfirst into unrealistic expectations, arbitrary time constraints, and an all-or-nothing mindset that sets us up for disappointment.
Now you get hard on yourself because you thought you could just flip a switch…
..Only you realize, it’s not that simple.
Rather than surrendering ourselves to the gripping chokehold of time restraints and end-of-year goal setting, I encourage you. Embrace change to happen when you are ready, inside, and on no particular day of the year.
Now while the concept of New Year’s resolutions may not have been directly addressed by ancient philosophers, their wisdom often includes insights applicable to goal-setting and the pursuit of personal betterment.
Below are 20 quotes from ancient philosophers on the concept of not partaking in setting unrealistic goals and avoiding unrealistic expectations.
20 Quotes from ancient philosophers on why you shouldn’t set New years resolutions:
“It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste much of it.” – Seneca
“We suffer more in imagination than in reality.” – Seneca
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” – Aristotle
“He suffers more than necessary, who suffers before it is necessary.” – Seneca
“If you are pained by external things, it is not they that disturb you, but your own judgment of them. And it is in your power to wipe out that judgment now.” – Marcus Aurelius
“It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor.” – Seneca
“He who fears death will never do anything worth of a man who is alive.” – Seneca
“He who is not a good servant will not be a good master.” – Plato
“Quality is not an act, it is a habit.” -Aristotle
“The first and greatest victory is to conquer yourself.” – Plato
“A wise man is he who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.” – Epictetus
“What lies behind you and what lies in front of you, pales in comparison to what lies inside of you.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson
“The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.” -Lao Tzu
“Let come what comes, let go what goes. See what remains.” -Ramana Maharshi
“Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.” -Epicurus
“You cannot create experience. You must undergo it.” -Albert Camus
“He who would learn to fly one day must first learn to stand and walk and run and climb and dance; one cannot fly into flying.” -Friedrich Nietzsche
“Beware the barrenness of a busy life.” -Socrates
“Those who lack the courage will always find a philosophy to justify it.” -Albert Camus
“Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising every time we fall.” -Confucius
Remember:
December 31st marks the end of the CALENDAR year. Not the end, deadline, or mandatory starting point.
Your change must come because you are ready for it.
And a painful truth is sometimes, it may take a couple of New Year’s Eve to get there.
But that is only discouraging if you live for the finish lines.
When rather, it is your journey that creates the individualistic YOU that is capable of reaching higher points, and better places, than anything in your wildest dreams.
I hope you found these quotes inspiring and enlighten you to personal betterment. Often, it is the reading of other’s work that gives us clarity.
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