It’s the month of snow and gray skies, the start of the spring semester, and of course New Year’s resolutions. A couple weeks ago, most everyone made half-drunken vows to be a better person this year. This often entails drinking more water and less wine, working out every day, or eating clean. Even more often, this entails sticking to the “New Year, New Me” philosophy for a solid month before abandoning every promise made at 12:07 AM on New Year’s Day. With that in mind, here are five things you can do instead of following New Year’s resolutions:
1. Take the monthly gym membership fee and put it towards a charity you feel passionate about rather than using it twice before forgetting about it.
2. Reasonably cut back on your sugar and alcohol intake rather than quitting completely for three weeks, and then binging like the world’s going to end.
3. Spend less time tweeting about your resolutions, and more time planning ways to achieve your goals.
4. Make personal goals instead of jumping on the bandwagon with all your friends.
5. Set actual, attainable goals with ways to track your progress.
I’m not saying that wanting to better yourself is a bad thing — it’s not. But using the new year to set crazy, unreasonable resolutions that will just end with you being disappointed in yourself, is a bad thing. You should be setting personal goals year round as you see things in your life that you feel need improvement. Set goals not because you’re saturated with champagne thinking that, “This year is the one. This year, instead, tell yourself that, “yes, I will finally accomplish XYZ,” because you truly want to see a change in your life. Happy January, collegiettes!