I make them every year, and yet I don’t stick to them. How does that make me feel? Pretty bad if I’m honest. It’s hard to set yourself a task and fail, but it’s even harder to keep up with the insane fad new years resolutions people make. I gave this a lot of thought this year, so read my guide below on realistic, healthy new years resolutions.
Make them realistic!
- ‘I won’t order a single take away all year.’
- ‘I’ll get up at 5 am every morning and go for a jog.’
- ‘I’ll attend every single lecture, seminar, and get an A throughout the year on everything.’
More often than not, these kinds of resolutions aren’t designed to help you, only hurt you. If you’re somebody who gets take away more often then cooking, or somebody who sleeps until noon and has never jogged in their life, or somebody who hasn’t attended a lecture since freshers week, those resolutions aren’t for you. There’s no shame in gradually improving yourself. Just because the last digit of the date changes in a second, doesn’t mean you have to. Instead of those resolutions I’ve listed above, I’d recommend;
- ‘Only order take away once a week.’
- ‘Get up at 9 am on weekdays, and jog on the weekends’
- ‘Try your best to attend university timetables and excel where you can.’
Don’t make resolutions for anybody but yourself
Lots of people make new years resolutions in accordance with the rest of society. The new year resolutions that you’ll stick to are the ones which make sense to you. They’re the ones which will genuinely benefit you, so you won’t mind putting in the effort! If your parents want you to learn a foreign language, your friends want you to join them at the gym, but all you want to do is read more, read more! People get swept up in recent crazes and forget that all new year resolutions are designed to be personal improvements. Now surely, it makes no sense to base a PERSONAL improvement on the actions of others. Keep that in mind when making any new years resolutions too.
Find the right balance
My last tip is probably the most important, and the one I’m most guilty of. While the end result of a new years resolution could be an improvement on yourself, it’s not worth pursuing if getting there will almost kill you. Your everyday life won’t come to a halt so you can work towards a new goal, so make a gradual change. Committing to losing three stone in 3 months or something crazy like that may well be beneficial to you, but if every element of your life will suffer as a result of this, it’ll just make room for improvements in other areas. The bottom line here is not to sacrifice other commitments for your new year’s resolutions. If it’s impossible to achieve alongside your day-to-day life, modify your end goal to make it realistic, or else you’ll find yourself taking more steps back than forward.
Happy New Year!
