New Year, New You?
By Lauren Henderson
(Photo Credits: triffle solutions, don reiman cfp)
New Year resolutions are the perfect way to kick a bad habit and start afresh. But really, how often do we stick to them? It seems logical to start at New Year, you have 365 days to show off the ‘new you’, but often 3 weeks in and you’ve given up.
A common resolution is to go to the gym and eat healthy and as a gym go-er myself, I can see the difference from December to January. The surge of people at the beginning of January certainly fades by the end of the month. If people have dropped their resolutions after a few weeks, what is the point? According to the NHS only 1 in 10 achieve the goal set out by their resolution. Research has shown that people who don’t break down their resolutions see it too much of a mountain to climb and end up giving up.
As a New Year resolution is seen as a task for the whole year, often the goals are leaps and bounds away, making the goal seem unattainable. Research has shown that those who set smaller, more manageable goals are more likely to succeed in achieving them. If you wanted to be slimmer in the New Year, it would be better to set out a goal weight to lose rather than just the objective to ‘be slimmer’.
This information would suggest that people might not need a New year’s resolution and just rather set goals throughout their life. The start of a New Year symbolises leaving the old behind and moving forward, which is why it can be seen as the perfect time to start but often we need to realise that the 1st of January is the same as every other day. Placing too much emphasis on this key date to change your life could be seen as unrealistic.
New Year can be seen as time to turn your life around, but in reality only 8% of people will achieve their resolution. Often resolutions are things that we should be doing anyway but decide that this is the year we should actually act upon them. The whole concept is flawed, just because the date goes back down to 1 doesn’t instantly mean we need a whole new life with 10 new rules that we must stick to. The important thing is to be always self-reflective and trying to better ourselves, which is an ongoing process, not one that needs to happen once a year.
Perhaps focusing on one key objective for the year would be the perfect start, and ditch this whole ‘New Year Resolution’ shabang.