It’s 2020 already! We’re halfway into January and you may be thinking about the New Year’s resolutions you made and how you’re going to stick to them. You may be wondering whether it’ll be worth it to jot a few down now, even though we’re already two weeks into the year. Or, you may be going back and forth with yourself on whether it would be worth making any resolutions at all. If it’s the latter, then that’s understandable.
Every time a New Year comes around, many people make resolutions on how they want to be better; how they want to improve themselves. Yet, more often than not, they give up on such resolutions within the first few months.
If we look at some stats, we can see what kind of people generally make resolutions by the time the New Year comes around: “Young Brits are the most likely to make a resolution with 47% of those aged from 18 to 24 saying they will make resolutions, compared to three in ten (30%) of 35 to 44 year olds and just 18% of those aged over 65. Women are also slightly more likely to make a resolution at 30% compared to 24% of men”. Now, you may be reading that and thinking that that’s just a bunch of data and numbers. You’re not wrong! Whilst this gives an idea of who is likely to make resolutions, it doesn’t quite grasp how many of those give up on their resolutions so soon after making them. Gareth Mills of Strava says that “sticking to resolutions is hard and we all know there’s a lot of talk and pressure in January about getting fitter and being healthier”.
This mention of pressure is exactly what this post is aiming to crack down on. It’s easy to understand why people give up on their New Year’s resolutions after a short time: there is too much pressure to fulfill them and associating it with the New Year means it comes with the territory! New Year = resolutions to better myself.
But, what if, instead of them being New Year resolutions, we just referred to them as resolutions. Want to get fitter? Don’t leave it until the New Year to start. Want to eat better? Get to it straight away! Want to be more motivated to work harder in your job? What are you waiting for? These are just some of the more common resolutions that people tend to make around the New Year, especially after an indulgent festive period. We all know that a New Year’s resolution to spend less can prove to be difficult when we see offers telling us things like “what a fabulous experience you will get from Vsavi’s vape kit”.
Some of the resolutions that are overlooked could be simpler things like making more effort to spend time with loved ones you don’t see enough, or investing in time for yourself to do something you really love instead of saying that you’ll “do it later”. Whatever it is that you want to improve on, don’t put pressure on yourself to do it in the New Year and instead, start straight away and let it be a slow-burning progress. You don’t have to be perfect at it straight away! Try your best and have fun with it, that’s what counts.
*Collaborative post*
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