Unless you’re trying to be really original, you’ll have made at least one (if not five) New Year’s Resolutions. Starting to kick yourself for vowing to eat the vegetable you most detest/taking up running when a brisk uphill walk is a struggle/shaking from alcohol, tobacco, chocolate withdrawals (delete where appropriate)? If you want to know whose bright idea it was to kick-start this brutal tradition of denial after a period of soaring self-indulgence, it would be the ancient Babylonians. Yep, you can blame the Babylonians for the reason you feel the need to go to the gym 7am before the sun’s even risen followed by attending your 2 hour 9am lecture.
If you’re resolutions equate to punishments masquerading as “positive self-improvement”, feel free to write to me and personally thank me for informing you, as I’m about to do, that you’ve got the ‘Culture of the New Year’s Resolution’ resolutely wrong. Here are HCX’s top tips on how to pick and stick to the right resolutions.
- Don’t give something up.
Let me explain. Unless it’s something along the lines of giving up burping or farting in public, stopping something cold turkey is just a bad idea. You clearly like if not love the indulgence, whatever it may be. Otherwise you wouldn’t feel the need to give it up. So this isn’t the number one top tip because I lack the self-control to deny myself pick and mix at the cinema – there’s simply no point giving up something that makes you happy, however “bad” someone’s told you it is. If you want to stop smoking, gradually cut back. Don’t give up chocolate just because you ate the whole box of Quality Street while baby bro was still on his turkey. You won’t last long. Resolutions of moderation are simply far more successful.
- A Resolution’s not just for January
A dog isn’t just for Christmas and a New Year’s Resolution isn’t just for January. Traditionally it’s a resolution you make in the new year to last for the duration of that new year. The habit we have of making New Year’s Resolutions is just as strong as the habit we have of breaking them, but the idea is to make a commitment that lasts for all 365 days – another reason to seriously take Top Tip Number One on board. If you can separate yourself from the culture of making a change only to give it up when you reach February, half the battle’s won. To bring in a fitting metaphor, make your resolutions a marathon not a sprint.
- A Positive Change
If you can remember you’re making a year-long resolution with yourself then Top Tip number Three should come naturally. Instead of the challenge being to give something up, challenge yourself by doing something. Speaking of marathons, if you make the New Year’s Resolution of running one you’re making a positive resolution. It would involve hard work and dedication but with something to work towards it will be a much more successful resolution than “I’m going to go to the gym every day”. You won’t.
- Know yourself and tailor make your resolutions accordingly.
A friend will have boasted they’ll going running every day (lucky them), and another will have said they’re giving up drinking (they won’t). Don’t jump on the bandwagon because you’re a) stuck for ideas, b) think it sounds good or c) competitive. You’ll be unsuccessful in sticking to the resolution because it’s not your own. Take the time to look at what you like and dislike and change something for yourself. If you love fashion but find you don’t follow it as closely as you’d like, make a change that caters to that interest. If you end up taking out an Elle subscription and vowing to read it cover to cover when it arrives each month, don’t feel guilty that your girlfriend volunteers every week in a soup kitchen. We should all be impressed if she sticks to it but maybe she was a really bad citizen last year and she wanted to balance her karma back out. You don’t necessarily have to do that.
- Write them down and stick them on a wall.
So I’ve made four resolutions, and I’m doing well on three. I’m doing average to ok on the fourth but it’s only because I keep forgetting it. Resolutions are challenges and your subconscious as well as the force of habit will be competing with your conscious desire to stick to the resolution. I may sound on the brink of senility but since writing my resolutions down, I’m doing better on the fourth. Whether it’s forgetfulness or you’ve set yourself a challenge you’re really struggling to stick to, having it written down helps motivate.
Good luck! And if you really don’t want to change anything because, like Mary Poppins, you’re practically perfect in everyway, make something up to talk to people about anyway. It’s more interesting. Happy New Year!
Photocredits: Pinterest