I think New Year’s resolutions may actually be bad for our health. I often hear people say, “New year, new me” or “My goal this year is to lose a lot of weight.” These resolutions sound like positive changes, but they actually try to fix problems in a negative way. When I hear “New year, new me,” I really hear a person saying she is uncomfortable being herself. When I hear people say that they want to drop a ton of weight, what I hear is, “I have a poor body image.” By focusing on the negatives, a person sets themself up for failure.
When people don’t see the results they quite expected (i.e. “I still haven’t lost enough weight” or “I just can’t break this habit”), they begin to lose hope. And, let’s be honest, it’s hard enough to keep your eyes on the prize for 365 days a year. Who even remembers their resolutions in February, let alone December?! And with that lack of hope, people again begin to focus on the negatives, and it becomes a vicious cycle of unhappiness. No one should hate the only body they have. No one should criticize and judge who they are as a human being.
Instead, I believe that there is only one resolution worth keeping: we should all vow to do one nice thing for ourselves daily.
It doesn’t sound complicated because it isn’t. It may be something as small as taking a relaxing, hot bath or it may be splurging on a cute sundress. For some it may be to relax more, while others may decide they need to use their free time more productively. It may be academic, like meeting up with a friend for a study sesh. It could still be one of those original resolutions to improve health, like eating an apple instead of a Snickers or taking a kick-butt cardio class at the gym rather than surfing Pinterest on the couch. Do one nice thing for yourself daily simply because you deserve it. To quote Kathryn Stockett’s The Help, “You is kind, you is smart, and you is important.”
When the mind treats the body well, the body reciprocates. With positive thoughts and energy, you can’t fail.
If you find that this resolution is totally doable, try also doing one nice thing daily for someone else. Give your parents a call and tell them that you love and miss them, compliment a stranger (and mean it!), pay for the order of the car behind you in the drive-thru (okay, there aren’t any drive-thrus in SLO, but you understand the idea).
Of course resolutions are not intended to be harmful, but sometimes the way we go about them has an opposite effect. Rather than focus on what we should improve in 2014, we need to reward ourselves for who we are. We should aim to do one nice thing for ourselves daily. We deserve it! We will become so much happier with ourselves. And if we can even share our happiness with those around us, well, I’d say that’s one great resolution.