New Year, New You. That is what new year’s resolutions are usually for. People thinking that they can have a better year ahead by also making themselves better. This is not wrong, a better personality, mentality, and outlook in life are key factors for a better life in general. That being said, it’s not a wonder why new year’s resolution became a list of self-improvement plans for many people. So what are the top things people want to change/ do to themselves? Find out in our 10 most popular new year’s resolutions.
#1 Lose Weight & Stay Fit
Top and foremost among the most popular new year’s resolutions are losing weight and/ or staying fit. The line of thinking goes like this: “I swear after the cheat days (Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year), I’ll start losing weight. I’ll go on a diet and do some exercise. BUT I’ll indulge myself first for the last time”. The next thing you know, you’re eating the leftovers from new year’s eve and telling yourself that it’s a shame letting food go to waste., so you HAVE to eat them and start your NY resolution tom. This cycle will go on for the rest of the week until you no longer care about your plan anymore.
This time try to keep at it. You can take baby steps first so to speak so that you don’t get burned out too early. There are several home exercise you can do to lose weight and stay fit. Or, you can acquire fun hobbies that can keep you in shape at the same time. This way, you wouldn’t feel that you are putting up too much effort and yet you are slowly taking a step towards your goal/
#2 Eat healthier
Who doesn’t wish for a healthy body? Everyone would want to get healthy for various reasons. Some want to be healthy to look good, some to be physically strong, or maybe to have immunity against disease and a lot more. The thing is, it’s one thing to want it and another to actually work for it. And everyone knows that one way to be healthy is to eat healthily, that’s probably why this is one of the most popular new year’s resolutions. You don’t have to make a drastic change in your diet overnight. To start, you can keep the usual meal you eat, but make it a healthier version. For example, you can still have spaghetti but this time, make it squash spaghetti. There are several healthier alternative recipes to your favorite dish online. This is a good start.
#3 Stop Smoking
If you smoke, you’ve probably told this to yourself numerous time, “this is the last stick, I’m not smoking again”. Then 15 minutes later, you are already craving for another cig. Smoking is an addiction and like any other addiction, it’s not a walk in the park trying to stop. That’s why a lot of people are clinging to the spirit of the holidays to motivate them to stop. Unfortunately, after the high of the holidays are over and you go back to the stress of your everyday life, there would seem to be no reason for you anymore to stop. Chances are, you’ll go back to smoking for a temporary relief. How to avoid this? Learn other things that you can do to relieve your stress and get you through tough times.
#4 Work/ Study harder
So you have a procrastination habit that has been getting in the way of your work or studies. You know that you could do a lot better if you don’t have it. So a few days before New Year, you promise yourself that you won’t procrastinate again starting New Year. What you didn’t realize is that itself is procrastination, waiting for a certain date before starting what you can actually start right then and there. The best thing you can do to be able to work and study harder is to start acting. Not planning, not scheduling but doing.
#5 Be Thrifty
So you splurged on everything during holidays, a special meal, special clothes, vacation. You do know that you are spending more than what you’d normally do and you probably have to take some fund from your life saving or something. This is the usual case why people have being thrifty in their new year’s resolution. After spending a lot, we need/ want to spend less afterward. Hence this is added to the list.
#6 Save Money
This is usually on the list too as it correlates to #5, spend less=save more. And who doesn’t want some extra buck in handy when an unexpected need occurs. Right? So how do you do this? Several ways, you can start with larger cuts of your expenses. Revisit and check other options. Like your insurance for example, do you pay individual home, car and life insurance? Ask your agent for a package or bundle, most of the time it costs less. Less insurance to pay, more cash on hand (or piggy bank or cookie jar or under the mattress, lol). Another example is checking your subscriptions, is your mobile plan just adequate to your need? Or are you always getting unused minutes that doesn’t roll over? Explore possible options like getting fewer minutes or getting a family plan with shared minutes (especially when you have a teenager, I’m sure she’ll be happy to have your unused credits). Now that you already have an idea of what you can do, look around you and I’m sure you’ll find a lot of other ways that you can start saving,
#7 Stop Drinking
This is a hard one. Especially if you’re the type who is used to having a couple of bottles after work to relax, or getting a shot or two before bed because you don’t easily get sleep. You probably know that what started as an occasional thing is becoming a hobby and it’s getting worse. That’s why you decided to stop and what better time to stop than the new year, right? Wrong. When it comes to changing for the better, the right time is always NOW. Keep that in mind and don’t be afraid or ashamed to seek professional help if it’s necessary. Not because it’s your new year’s resolution mean you have to do it all by yourself. Help yourself by letting others help you.
#8 Learn Something New
Good for you. You might have finally realized that you’re becoming one with the couch already and that joystick already feels like a part of your body. So the best thing to do is find something else to keep you busy. One other, more legit scenario is maybe you are getting bored with your monotonous life and you feel like you are no longer living but just merely existing. It will do you right to learn a new thing to do. It can be a new hobby or new productive/ occupational skill or both. What’s important is, it will make you livelier and you’ll have something to look forward to doing. That being said, this really deserves to be among the most popular new year’s resolutions.
# 9 Be Organized or Clean House And Keep It That Way
Oh well, I’m guilty of always promising myself to do these things. The only difference is, I do it every week, new year or not. So apparently, a lot of people are more realistic than me, as they make this their new year’s resolution and not a weekly cycle of failure. That being said, you probably wouldn’t trust any advice coming from me on how to keep this resolution.
#10 No Resolution
To be truthful, finding out that there is a large fraction of people who don’t have a new year’s resolution didn’t surprise me anymore. There can be different reasons, maybe they’ve just completely given up or very content with who they are and what they have that they don’t believe they should change anything. Some reasons we may never find out or understand.
For those of you who never stop trying to improve yourselves, (even if only annually), good job! I hope I was able to help even if just a bit to help you keep your new year’s resolution/self-improvement plans. Good luck!