As each year wraps up, everyone begins to make claims about how they will be a better version of themselves in the new year. If you’re like me, you wait until the ball drops to make these changes and continue making the poor choices you want to kick all the way through the end of December. When you woke up on this January 1st and remembered all the poor choices you potentially made the night before you thought, “It’s fine, that was the 2017 me!”
However, here we are, one month into supposedly being better, 2018 versions of ourselves and I feel I can speak for most when I say not a lot has changed. But how could we expect to become a whole new person in just a month? Why does the coming of a new year mean the need to become 3,000 times better than our past year self? We are only human.
Despite the many New Year’s Resolutions I made, I definitely did not all of a sudden turn into a completely new, fitter, healthier, more productive version of myself. I have worked out three times, which definitely does not measure up to the four-five times a week I had planned for. However, that is definitely more than I did in December. I have not made it to the library a single time despite declaring I would never lazily do homework in bed again in 2018. However, I have been better about getting work done earlier and getting to bed on time. I have not suddenly kicked all anxieties in my life despite declaring that I would not let anything stress me out in 2018. However, I have done more to limit the stressors in my life.
It is ridiculous to expect yourself to be able to make all of these changes just because the clock struck twelve and you kissed one of your high school friends at your New Years Eve party. My latest 2018 resolution is to celebrate every small change. I think it is awesome to want to be a better version of you in the new year, but you have a whole 365 days to get there. For now, celebrate the baby steps.
Sources
1. https://media.giphy.com/media/26xopBQHpOqb4Iifm/giphy.gif
2. https://media.giphy.com/media/BmO8YtWDfnqCc/giphy.gif