More Answers... (12/28/25 Newsletter): Do as Lizards Do... (why are there New Year's Resolutions, anyway?)

Hi Everyone, 

Here's your Sunday night "More Answers..." to help you head into the work week if you're working, or simply line you up to close out 2025 and step into 2026. Remember, you can see previous newsletters at askchrista.com/MoreAnswers.

Today's topic? How New Year Resolutions may hold you back.

My Home Team

I have two daughters, now 15 and 10. They are great people-- the kind I'd be friends with even if they weren't my daughters. My going joke to anyone who knows me is, "I love them because I'm their momma, but I really like them, too." (IYKYK)

I also have two dogs, an 18-pounder who is nearly 12 (we think), and a 70-pounder who is nearly three (we think). They're great, too. Polite, self-aware enough to know where the boundaries are, "puppy" enough to push them anyway, especially when it comes to giving and receiving affection and attention. They are the kind of pups that people think of when they think of "good dogs." (and they are good dogs).

But I also have a bearded dragon, Cleopatra, who is two years old.
I "stole" her from my youngest, who graciously conceded Cleo to me after seeing how much Cleo and I "clicked." (yes, bearded dragons are surprisingly social and highly responsive to humans).

Cleo is amazing-- more like a wise friend than a pet. She's always calm, rarely in need of anything more than some floor time and social time, eats simply, digests even more simply.

Cleo is perhaps the lowest maintenance being in my house while also offering up something that surprised me about her: she has taught me a few things about the one aspect of life I've always wrestled with: time.

The Human Construct of Time (and all the silly rules that go along with it)

One of my earlier Ask Christa! episodes focused on time (S2E21). A listener asked, "How can I manage time if I cannot control it?"

The episode focused first on how time is a human construct: we made it up to organize work, maximize daylight to live productively, collaborate and cooperate with others, etc. As social beings, this has held true since the dawn of... well... time.

For all intents and purposes, time as a construct (not as the finite noun we all see on a clock or in a calendar, but as a complex idea of how we live) should be a tool to enhance our lives, right? 

Alas, if you ask most people how they feel about time, they will answer, "I don't have enough of it."

For twenty years I've structured my life to feel balanced, even if it isn't always balanced. After all, we can strive for excellence, but only nature can create perfection.

Part of how I have found balance is through a love/hate relationship I have with time. On the one hand, I know how to maximize my time like a master: uptime, downtime, in-between-time, family, work, play. I block work time in my calendar to think and create, and I fiercely protect that time: it is what makes me charge up and spin out high productivity in a split second, especially since I typically work on very complex issues.

But the bigger picture of time-- the "life" part of time-- hardly feels maximized. There isn't a week that goes by when I'm not asking questions related to my guestimated time on Earth: Am I doing enough to make an impact? Am I giving the unique skills I have to offer to enable others' success(es)? Am I remaining upskilled and sharp as a leader and manager? As a momma?

It's the life-bound side of time that *I* wrestle with, and way more than what most think of on the day-to-day level or week-to-week level.

And when people want to stretch out the day-to-day or week-to-week goals, what do they do?

New Year's Resolutions (NYRs)...

I've never been a New Year's Resolution type of person. No, it's not my contrarian nature; it's because I know how quickly and often life changes, so setting up a year-long goal based on one day's event seems like a setup for various challenges.

(plus, I setup and adjust small goals all the time while working toward bigger life goals-- I've never focused on one big day to get started)  

Most NYR's stall out my end of February or March-- and not because people have no staying power, although some don't (and if you're one of them, it might be time to honor that long-term goals may not be your style), but because various factors frequently change in life, and what made sense and felt accomplishable at the end of December may not feel as satisfying, fulfilling, or accomplishable several weeks or months later.

Maybe your work schedule has changed. Maybe your financial situation has changed. Maybe your NYR had a minimal motivational factor to it. Maybe you reached your goal quickly and aren't interested in moving to the next level or phase.

Or maybe it's simply because we put all our attention on a date thinking that a New Year will keep us committed to something new, then the progress of time puts that date in the rearview mirror much sooner than we humans think it will.

Time is funny that way.

What Cleo Is Teaching Me About Time...

Here is where my wise dragon comes in, though, and we'd probably all be better if we lived our time as lizards do, because while everyone likes to promote the false theory of a Lizard Brain (for real, there's no such thing and scientists have known this for a few decades while, with more and more recent papers on the topic [I linked to a good read from 2018], but it still sticks), what I've learned from Cleo is that lizards are masters for how they live based on their relationship with time. 

For example, I watch Cleo basking on her rock for a few hours every day. A few hours. Just... sitting there... at least, to my narrow-thinking human eyes processing what I see based on how humans live.

Yeah, sure. It looks like she's "just sitting there." But she's not.

She's living life doing what's needed for her to have the best life possible: keeping her metabolism where it needs to be, getting in enough UVA and UVB light, remaining at the best temperature.

And she does all of that perfectly because she is not hindered by the pesky concept (or real rules) of time. 

She would never imagine creating a NYR, either. If she had a voice, my guess is she'd say, "Why would you do that on one day when you have so many days to choose from?" 

If she had a voice, she'd have a good point.

BOOSTER FOR YOUR WEEK!!!

No booster this week; I think the heady concepts in this newsletter are probably enough for one night. I do wish you all a Happy New Year, with safe tidings and healthy moments filled with happiness.

And if you feel the need to conjure up a resolution, promise me you'll stop for just a moment and ask two questions: 1) is it additive to your life, offering positivity and gifts back to you throughout the year? and 2) whether you are finally resolving to do something simply because it's a new year.

No matter how you answer those questions, take a listen to what your answers may be reflecting, and then do your best to live life like Cleo does: doing what's needed for you to live the best life possible.

(And remember, if you have a business challenge or a workplace issue, Ask Christa!)

With kindness, and sending good cheer for 2026,

Christa & Her Home Team

(Below is a photo of Cleo and Lady hanging out...)