Everyone knows that most New Year's resolutions are abandoned one month into the year and forgotten about until the next new year rolls around. It’s just how the game works, and because of this, I don’t start my New Year's resolutions until February. Here are just some of the perks of holding off on the “new year, new me” goals.
Less people at the gym.
Like most Americans, the amount of time I spend working out it far less than the time I spend not working out and so one of my New Year's resolutions is to get in better shape. While I may not be a meal prep-obsessed gym rat, I work out enough to avoid getting a dad bod and I know my way around the machines.
When it comes to New Year's and the gym, there tends to be two types of people; beginners who are intimidated by the gym experts and the experts who hate the beginners. I would like to consider myself an in-between of these two types, but during the first month of the new year, I simply do not have room in the gym while all this beef is going down.
On one hand, I get why someone who always works out at the same gym might be frustrated with those hogging the machines they have probably never used before in their life, but on the other hand, I also think these faux personal trainers need to get over themselves. The beginners want to make a healthy lifestyle change and the last thing they need is someone discouraging them. I prefer to enjoy to take advantage of the fact that January is not part of bathing suit season and patiently wait for the gym to clear. Besides, most people give up on working out within a month anyway.
Syllabus week is meant to be enjoyed.
Now that I am getting older, the idea of going out all of the time looks less and less appealing and so one of my resolutions was to party less and study more. The thing is, I am a normal, college student who wants to enjoy syllabus week while I still can. I just spent a month doing nothing in my hometown during winter break, so when I return to school, I want to go out to and reunite with my friends. I’m not a party animal, but also I don’t look down on people that do go out. I push off my resolution of stop going out after the first few weeks into the new year because choosing to opt out of syllabus week is simply ridiculous considering that there is nothing to study for yet.
February is the worst month anyway.
Besides those born in the month of February, no one likes this month. It’s cold, there’s Valentine’s Day, and nothing to do. By giving myself a month to begin my New Year's resolutions, I have time to really think about what it is that I want to accomplish this year. I tend to make a list in my head of a ton of things I want to get better at, but my list is so long that there’s no way I will be able to realistically accomplish them all. In January, I narrow down what I really care about and work on them as something to do February. It’s good to have goals, but it’s better to stick to the goals you make.
