We have made it one month into the new year, and it’s likely that by now, many of our New Year’s resolutions have fallen to the wayside. That’s okay; life happens. Often, our resolutions are very idealistic and can be very hard to accomplish in the real world. However, this doesn’t mean you have to abandon your goals. Sometimes, all that is needed is a little revision to make resolutions more achievable.
Resoultion 1: Eat Healthy and Exercise Often
Revision: Eat Healthier and Exercise when it best fits in your schedule
It’s hard for anyone to immediately switch lifestyles; if you try to swear off junk food forever or go out of your way to be at the gym everyday, your resolutions probably won’t last long. Instead, make small steps toward being healthier or exercising more often. For example, instead of subtracting unhealthy food, you can try adding more fruits or veggies to your everyday diet. For exercise, start out slow and work with your schedule to determine what time and days are best for you. Making changes in your lifestyle will take time, so allow for slow progress instead of expecting quick success.
Resolution 2: Get more Sleep and Go to Bed Early
Revision: Get More Sleep- Take Naps and don’t stay up longer than you need to
Going to bed at 9 or 10 PM every weeknight would be ideal, but college life makes that a very difficult task. The amount of homework and commitments that the average student has often prevents an early bedtime. If you can find time, taking power naps during the day can be really rejuvenating. Also, it might be easier to avoid staying up too late rather than trying to go to bed early. If you know that you have to work late into the night, do the work, but don’t stay up any later than needed. Often, it’s tempting to get on our phones or computers while in bed, which can cause us to stay up later than planned and lose hours of sleep. If you leave your phone somewhere else, you might end up getting more sleep every night.
Resolution 3: Stop Procrastinating
Revision: Start Projects Earlier
Breaking out of the procrastination cycle is really difficult. It seems like work keeps raining down on college students, making it impossible to get a good head start on anything. However, if you can start (but not necessarily finish) assignments a little earlier than usual, you’ll have just a little less work to do when it’s time to finish the assignment.
There are many more possible resolutions than these, but the approach to revision is similar. Instead of trying to enact a ton of change in a short period of time, resolutions should aim to work towards that change over a much longer period of time. If you’ve broken a resolution, don’t be discouraged; just tweak it a bit and keeping adjusting your resolution until you’ve found a balance that’s right for you!
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