Take your resolutions in a new direction

It’s been two days since you promised to make changes in 2017 — to be a better, healthier or smarter version of you — and after 48 hours, it’s a good time to see how that resolve’s holding up, and, perhaps, re-evaluate.

That’s because a couple days after a new year begins, resolution makers still hanging on to the idea of turning over a new leaf have reached the halfway point to failure. Yep, the experts tell us 25 percent of resolutions have about a one-week lifespan and failure rates increase each week after.

Discouraging as it may be, the tradition of making new year resolutions is more about ritual than reality. Only 8 percent of resolution makers actually succeed in keeping their commitment to changes, according to University of Scranton researchers.

So while folks feel better for a little while thinking they are going to embark on a 12-month journey to awesomeness, for the not-8-percent, it really is just words.

In the face of most certain failure, while burdened with the obligatory tradition that resolutions of some kind must be made, the new guidance from the school of self-improvement is to ditch lofty goals and go with what’s practical, or, lower expectations altogether, build in some wiggle room and think of them more like “intentions” than resolutions.

Another emerging school of thought is redirected resolutions — kind of like redirected aggression where an innocent bystander gets the brunt of someone lashing out, only in this case it’s a positive thing because someone else benefits from one’s need to make changes in the New Year.

That’s right, you can — as that fork of fattening desert makes its way to meet with your guilty-yet-clamoring taste buds — decide to redirect your do-good goals elsewhere.

And your beloved critters are a perfect target:

• Diet and fitness — They’re getting fat and generally owners are to blame. Nearly 54 percent of dogs and more than 58 percent of cats were classified as obese or overweight in 2015, according to the Association for Pet Obesity Prevention. The good news is they can’t cheat on diets and don’t have the luxury of flaking quite like we do. Research or visit with a vet about appropriate feeding amounts and get that pudgy fur ball exercising regularly.

• Healthcare — Make health a priority. Dental care, vaccinations and parasite treatment are just a few of the important health issues that need regular attention to keep pets healthy. Approximately 54 percent of cat owners and 48 percent of dog owners do not take their pets to the veterinarian unless the animal is visibly ill or injured, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association. If needed, create a savings strategy or look into pet insurance and plan to get the critters at least one checkup in 2017.

• Spay and neuter — Shed those reproductive organs in 2017; they cause more trouble than they’re worth. According to the ASPCA, 90 percent of animals left at shelters are not spayed or neutered. That’s quite possibly because unfixed animals are unpleasant and expensive — they mark possessions, run away, are more aggression prone, attract strays and neighborhood animals and suffer a range of health issues their fixed counterparts don’t — and they reproduce prolifically, multiplying the unpleasantness and expense.

Not only will it help them and extend the time you have with them, pets are perfect targets for new year resolutions mostly because they don’t have much choice, which improves the chances of resolution success — and who knows, in the process of backing a winning bet, you might even be inspired to tackle some of those resolutions you made for yourself.

Sharna Johnson is always searching for ponies. You can reach her at: [email protected]