It’s that time of year!! Well… the beginning! And you know what that means, New Year’s resolutions! If you’re struggling to come up with any, or just have curiosities about what other people are doing, keep reading to find out Her Campus Carleton’s execs goals and resolutions for this year.
Gabriella Rodrigues – President
If you read my “Why I don’t have a New Year’s Resolution” article, you might wonder, “why is she writing about resolutions?” I believe that New Year’s resolutions can lead to feelings of guilt because we set too high expectations for ourselves and unrealistic goals. While it is true that I don’t have a designated New Year’s resolution, the new year is a good time to start practicing healthy habits. This is especially true because we are in the colder months, where I sometimes neglect self-care and feelings of sadness creep in more frequently. Here are some healthy habits I want to start working on this new year:
- Cooking more: I love making new recipes, but as a vegetarian, I find some of the recipes complex and time-consuming to make. I often resort to sandwiches, frozen meals, and ramen. This year, I want to find and create simple vegetarian recipes with higher protein content and nutrients.
- Do more self-care: Sometimes, my skincare routine feels draining and like a chore. This year, I want to make self-care fun! I have started listening to music while I wash my face and incorporating regular face masks to make skincare fun and productive.
- Prioritize family and friends: Disconnecting fully from either my schoolwork, phone, or laptop is something I struggle with. My family and friends support and do so much for me, so I want to give back to them. In my free time, I want to spend less time scrolling on Instagram and more time texting or calling my friends. After a long day of school or work, I want to have a full conversation with my family instead of crashing on the couch and turning on the TV. This will help improve my mood over the winter by making me feel more connected and will improve relationships with those closest to me!
Harkiren Sandhu: ViCE President
When it comes to New Year’s resolutions, I made it a priority to better my self-confidence and overall well-being. Since this is my final semester of university (woo-hoo!) I want to feel more confident with myself and my academic success by constantly reminding myself that I will finish university on a high note!
I decided to do daily “cognitive-reframing exercises”; this is a technique used to reframe a particular situation in a more positive way, which helps with anxiety. For example, this week, I was not looking forward to my psychology quiz, so I used cognitive reframing to remind myself that “I have consistently studied for this quiz, I understand the material and my hard work will pay off.” This shift in my thinking has certainly made me feel more confident about my academic success! I will consistently work on cognitive reframing exercises and overall make it a habit throughout this year.
Elizabeth Mason: Senior Editor
Everybody says that they want to start their new year off great and make all these changes in their lives. But to what point do we actually stick to them? Some of our goals may be really hard to reach, like cutting out excess salt or sugar from my diet or waking up at 5 am every day. While that may work for lots of other people, those kinds of goals aren’t always attainable to us all because we’re human, and we make mistakes (and some of us really like salty snacks). So why don’t we make goals for ourselves that feel within our reach? I’m going to share with you two of the goals I have for myself.
Wearing my glasses: I’ve had glasses since I was three years old, but I got so sick of them during high school/peak COVID when I was wearing a mask every day and they were getting fogged up like crazy every time I took a breath. So I stopped wearing them for four years because then I got so used to how I looked without them. Boy, did my eyes suffer!! I didn’t think my vision COULD get any worse. I ordered a new pair of glasses over this past Christmas break and have been doing my best to keep them on and feel confident while doing so.
Doing my skincare every night: Before the New Year started, I was getting into such a bad habit of forgetting to do my skincare or even going to bed with my mascara on (sorry to my pillow and eyelashes!) because I was too tired or felt too unmotivated to do it. But not this year! I’ve been consistent at washing my face with all the products I spent my good har-worked money on and going to bed clean-faced. Feels good. Looks good!!
Georgia Looman – Associate Editor
My New Year’s resolutions are short and sweet this year, and mostly expand on a previous interest I already have. I’ve realized that having a foundation in a hobby or new habit usually makes it easier for me to stick to a resolution!
Here are a few:
- Haircare! I really want to start a haircare routine that not only makes my hair shiny and voluminous but also healthy. I plan to start experimenting with hair oils, hair masks, and sock curls. I’m an active user of heatless curlers, but they’re pretty uncomfortable to sleep in sometimes! Sock curls seem like the new way to go for the long-lasting beachy waves I’m aiming for.
- Spending less on clothing. Although I love the feeling of adding a new item to my wardrobe, I just end up purchasing similar items over and over. Instead, I need to start being happy with what I have. I’ve created several challenges for myself, such as not purchasing any clothing for a month (success so far!) and even giving my old clothes away to family members or thrift stores.
- Staying in touch with friends and family. I’m from Toronto, so my family is about a 5-hour drive away. Not to mention my friends, who have all migrated to different parts of the country for university. Calling my family, especially my grandparents, and texting friends to check in is something I plan to do at least once a week.
- Trying new meals. I’m not a cook, so the meals I make for myself aren’t exactly gourmet – and they quickly get repetitive. My goal is to try at least one new meal every week, or a variation of a meal I already enjoy. Hopefully, I’ll have quite a rotation at the end of the year. Last week was fish, this week it’s udon!
- Writing more! I want to build up my portfolio as much as I can before I graduate. Whether that’s publishing hard news stories with the Charlatan, fun articles with Her Campus, or political features with Carleton Global Review, I plan to publish at least 3 pieces every month. Wish me luck!
JOY KEKE – associate editor
New year, new me is a common saying by many as a way of resorting to your life. In a typical new year, my goals are very achievement-oriented, but for this one, I’m focusing more on personal growth.
- Not putting so much on my plate: In previous years, I was always the go-go-go type of person trying to do everything and anything, only to find out that it could only last for a while. For me, each month I’m going to make a few key priorities to focus on rather than do everything at once.
- Being present in the moment: For me, being present in the moment is a way for me to appreciate the beauty of life. It helps to create feelings of stillness and not feel overwhelmed.
- Read more books: As a journalism and law student, reading is key for me, but this year, I want to explore more in regards to reading more fun novels. Some genres I want to read more about are mystery and thriller.
Haily David – edi director
Coming into 2025, instead of goals, I have created a couple of intentions I hope to achieve throughout the year.
One of my intentions this year is to find my creative outlet. I have had a lot of different passions, whether it is writing music, a short story, or playing the same game or song for a week. I hope to focus on one thing I will love and cherish for a long period of time. Therefore, it will take small steps towards this intention, such as implementing 30 minutes to one activity and increasing it to an hour out of a day. I believe it is nice to go back to the little things you are passionate about and enjoy, amongst all the chaos that goes on around us.
This leads me to intention #2: Self-care. With the school year to focus on through 2025, it is easy to get wrapped up in upcoming assignments and exams. That is why I want to make it one of my priorities for self-care, dedicated to a specific day, once a week. Whether it is finally setting up a good morning and night routine, going on a long walk, listening to a podcast, watching a movie, or reading a good book, self-care is important because it is “me time.”
My last intention, which goes into the first two listed, is fueling my body with feel-good foods. In other words, I want to get better at cooking and preparing meals. I hope to start small and find more recipes and meals I can easily prepare and learn from. With this in mind, I have always imagined myself taking a cooking class to support this vision.
These intentions mean a lot to me, and life is not perfect, but life can be worthwhile if you set your mind to it!
Kaitlin Gruehl – Secretary
This year, I am focusing on steady growth and realistic standards for myself. When making goals, I usually make them depend on things that take physical form. This time around, I wanted to be more broad as a way for this goal to touch more areas of my life.
I have made a resolution for this year to ask myself two things before completing any task:
- What do I have to lose?
- What do I have to gain?
These two questions have already assisted me on multiple occasions. I am an indecisive person, so not only does this help me make decisions, but it allows me to put things that feel super heavy into a level perspective. When I take a situation and ask what I have to lose, the answer is often less than it originally feels. My insecurity around big decisions slightly diminishes as I realize something is not as deep as my mind believes it is. On the contrary, when I ask myself what I have to gain from an experience, the answer is often more than it originally feels. If something feels scary, risky, or like it may let me down, it is helpful to think of everything I can gain from the experience, even if it is just more experience.
Go check out part 2 to hear from the rest of our execs!!