Yes, it is that time of year again. You guessed it—New Years' resolutions. I have never been a fan of and have never really had a New Years' resolution.
At first, I felt guilty. Why don't I want to be better? Why don't I try harder? All of these people around me were making promises to be happier, to eat healthier and exercise more, to stay off of social media. And there I was, not doing anything. Was I just lazy?
When I sat down to write an article about New Years' resolutions, I knew I didn't want to just go with the flow and give you guys some more ways to make promises to yourself. I have my own opinion on New Years' resolutions, hopefully one that will broaden your perspective, so here it is.
Like I said before, I am not a fan of New Years' resolutions. You don't need a new year to become a better you—you should be trying to do that all the time. Resolutions put too much unnecessary pressure on a person. I know that it is a lot easier to say "next year will be better, I will start as soon as January 1st hits," but I don't think that is the way to go about it.
Starting or ending something cold turkey is setting yourself up to fail. You have set these extremely high standards for yourself that are not going to be easy to meet (you already know this or else it wouldn't be your resolution). And this, my friends, is the quickest way to make you feel bad about yourself.
You must work your way up to improvement. Start with little steps—smile more often, walk for 15 minutes a day, cut down your screen time by five minutes. You will start to see that you can do this, you can actually keep your resolution. Once you have conquered those first baby steps, you will be able to improve your routine more and more.
Creating a resolution is of course a great way to improve the things in your life that need to be better. But sometimes, I think that people can use it the wrong way—they use it to point out things about themselves that aren't perfect, that they aren't good at. And personally, I do not think that any of us need any more of that. Instead of focusing on all the things you didn't do this past year, reminisce on all of the things that you did and the memories that make you smile. Even if it was the worst year of your life, there is always a silver lining for every year of your life.
I do not want to steer anyone away from making a New Years' resolution—it is always important to keep improving and working toward the best version of yourself. Making promises to yourself is so important to improving your quality of life and your perspective of the world. But I think New Years' resolutions put too much pressure on a person. These resolutions are scary! Make this promise to yourself this year: I promise to love myself, cut myself some slack, and make myself better in ways that I see fit throughout this year.
Happy New Year!
