Subscribing to a Great New Year

New Year’s Day is probably the most positive day of the year when people, in all manner of situations, think back to the previous rotation around the earth and decide what they will do better this time.

The problem with resolutions

On the one hand, it is a silly ritual; most of the time, we make proclamations that would require the “willpower of the warrior” to do even a tenth of what we proclaim. The fact that that quote came from Kung Fu Panda is purposeful. Why? Because in that series of movies, Po (the Kung Fu Panda himself), is not obviously fit to do any of the things he will accomplish. He is everything a ninja warrior needs not to be.

But he succeeds. Why? Because he is a cartoon character, and the script says it happens like that. However, when you decide to make such significant changes in your life, you may not succeed. To be honest, fully succeeding is practically impossible if you set meaningful and challenging goals for yourself.

I probably sound like I am contradicting myself, and I am. Purposefully. I don’t want to make this about making strict resolutions because we often treat those as little scripts for our lives, and the script always ends happily. “This year, I will lose 200 lbs!” then, a few weeks later, you realize food is good, you already have clothes that fit, exercise is hard, and forget this. (And you may not have said forget. I did!)

(And not to be all technical about it, but everyone loses at least 200 pounds a year; it is just that we typically gain it all back the next day. But I suppose a resolution not only to gain back 60% of what we lost through the year isn’t quite as poetic (or measurable).

Recasting resolutions as subscriptions

As you ponder any changes you are making in life, don’t think of them in specific terms like a script. Think of them more like subscriptions. In this day and age, we have subscriptions to more than just a fruit of the month. We subscribe to everything: TV, software, gyms, etc.- things you wanted and planned to use.

All those life changes are like that gym membership you made, where canceling costs more than finishing out the contract. Try it out, lift a few weights, and you may like it (after the pain goes away, of course). In addition, a subscription sometimes teaches you something you didn’t expect it to, like reading contracts before you sign them.

As technical people, one concept we all need to subscribe to is constantly learning new things. This editorial is part of the DBWeekly newsletter on SQL Server Central, so if you are reading it there, you already have one place to learn new things.

The most significant difference between a subscription and a resolution is how definitive they are. When you resolve to do something, the first failure is often the end of it. A subscription isn’t a promise; it is buying into some action, service, or concept and, in many ways, a reminder. I am regularly reminded that I seem to subscribe to too many services. I review them periodically and realize I either use them or at least I need to.

Going to be a good year… maybe

This year, I am going to subscribe to the idea of eating better, exercising more, and learning a lot more about computing. Will I fail? Often, and maybe horribly. But I will do my best not to cancel those subscriptions until renewal time, which is the same time next year.

Louis Davidson (@drsql)

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