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Out With The Old & In With The New: Why You Should Leave New Year Resolutions in 2018

This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at UCLA chapter.

Ah, the new year. A time to finally start that diet, get a gym membership running and be the #bestversionofyourself. A time where we are all inclined to build a list of new years resolutions, or more like a list of goals you should’ve been making throughout the year, but the new year prompted you like no time before.

We all look forward to the new year as an opportunity to get our attempt at self-improvement going. But why? Why do we divide our goals and aspirations by the year? Why not wake up every single morning and make that your day to improve? Well, convenience. The idea of “new year, new me” is easy to follow. We conform to what’s most widely promoted. After all, we’re human. 

But this shouldn’t be the case. We shouldn’t have to rely on the new year to work to be our best selves. Yes, it’s convenient to push our goals off until the new year. But what about the inconvenience? What about confronting your need for self-improvement? We are all totally awesome, but we are all able to constantly improve. All of us! So, attack those goals and aspirations early on! Forget the new year!

“Oh, I’ll start eating healthy in 2019, like, that will be my year”, or “In 2019, I’m going to stop procrastinating!” Sound familiar? Most likely. This needs to stop. We need to stop making these goals on December 31st. Forget new year’s resolutions! Start nightly resolutions! Recite them in the morning. Work to achieve them throughout the day. See the change by the end of the year (or sooner).

Imagine how far you’d come if you reminded yourself of where you want to see yourself every single night, 365 days a year. Just imagine. Especially compared to some lanky list we put together and title “new years resolutions.” Imagine a list of short goals that you can accomplish in far less time and effort, propelling you forward with each accomplishment, motivating you more and more to keep killing the game. Imagine that. Then, every day would be your day! Forget “2019 is my year.” More like, “Wow. Today is my day.” Each and every day.

Don’t know where to start? Follow my goal setting article where I guide you step by step on how to correctly write your goals and achieve them, and combine that with this new approach to the new year. View the new year as a new chapter of your life, a chapter for which you can categorize all your accomplishments into a new number: 2019. How wonderful! Steer away from viewing the new year as a time to finally start what you’ve always wanted to do. Write it down now. Start it in an hour. Achieve it. Nothing is stopping you but your misconception of time and purpose. Nothing.

Nicolette is sophomore at UCLA studying psychobiology with a minor in professional writing. She is the author of her first published book, Control Mindset, a nonfiction guide to taking control of your mind & reality. Her aspirations are in the field of medicine, but she enjoys connecting the art of writing and creation with the sciences. She thinks writing biographies is very hard so she is butchering this as she types. She thanks you for reading her article and hopes you learned something new. She also loves coffee and needs some right now. She argues dark roast is the best roast. She's also probably hungry right now. Nom nom.
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