The New Year is an opportunity for new beginnings, lifestyle changes, and of course, New Year’s Resolutions. While people all over the world hit the gym, start eating healthier, and set their alarm clocks a few hours earlier, there are a few reasons why making a New Year’s resolution may not be the best idea and the most effective in achieving your goals.
1. Pressure
New Years is only one day. That means one day separates old and comfortable habits from completely new and uncomfortable ones. By setting up these amazing, yet sometimes unrealistic goals, you could simultaneously be setting yourself up for failure. For example, let’s say you find yourself struggling to stop at the gym on your way home every single day (which is completely understandable, we are in college after all). One day you might not feel so good or you might have had a bad class. You may think to yourself, “It’s only January 4 and I’m already failing.” This is not a healthy mindset to have and putting so much pressure on yourself to suddenly change the way you have been living for 365 days will only add more tension and discouragement, when you deserve self-love and encouragement.
2. Comparison
Comparing yourself to others and their resolutions is another reason to ditch the trend. There is such a thing as healthy competition. However, it is rarely a healthy kind of competition around New Years. While you and your friend’s resolutions may be healthy, constantly comparing your progress to other’s progress is not so healthy. If your New Year’s resolution is to wake up two hours earlier every day, and you see your friend waking up three hours earlier, you may start to doubt your potential. You also might push yourself to do the same even though your body is not quite ready and you have not mastered your own goal. Undoubtedly, this will not lead to success in your own goals. It’s always important to stay in your lane and focus on you. Unfortunately, with a phenomenon like resolutions that are almost impossible to avoid seeing, this can become difficult. But, all that’s important is that you’re comfortable with what you see.
3. Procrastination
It may be a month after New Years, but why not start working toward your goal right now? You don’t have to wait until January 2021 to start bettering yourself! New Year’s resolutions create a narrative that says goals can only begin to be worked on at a certain time, and that’s just not true. You are in control of your life, not the calendar. There is no reason to let the date determine your future. Limiting yourself to January 1st limits your goals and your chances of achieving them. Success is at your fingertips.
Essentially, there is nothing truly wrong with resolutions, but there is something wrong with setting limits for yourself in the form of dates. There’s no reason to place restrictions on your hopes and dreams for the next year. Get out there and go for it whenever you want! You got this girl!!