It’s a new year and a new me! I’m sure we’ve all heard this at one point or another. New Years means a fresh start, a New Year, and of course, a New Years Resolution. Everybody always does the same couple resolutions. “I want to lose weight.” “I want to eat better.” “I want to do ___, ___, and ____.”
All resolutions go around this idea of how to improve ourselves, which is a great thing! We can always use some improving. But rather than go for your typical “lose weight” resolution, why don’t you think of something different? Here is my list of New Years resolutions that I put together, but with a little twist.
Study less.
This may sound crazy, but give it a second. Instead of cramming for a test the night before or a few days before, take 20 minutes every day and look over your notes. If you go over your notes right after class and learn the material, when it comes time for the test, you won’t have to learn several chapters at a time. You will study less the night before and make better grades in the end.
Exercise more.
Rather than trying to cut out an hour to go to the gym every day, cut out small things throughout your day. When you go to the store, park a little farther away and walk. Or when you’re going up to the third floor, take the stairs instead of the elevator. If you start walking more, you will be exercising and not even know it.
Relieve Stress.
This is a really good resolution, but at times it can be challenging. First, in order to relieve stress, we have to figure out what is causing us stress. Is it work? School? Family? Whatever the cause may be, we have to work to fix that problem before we can fix our stress. If school is stressing you out, try the study for 20 minutes a day thing rather than procrastinating until the day of a test. If it’s work, figure out what causes you stress and work to avoid that trigger. You can also relieve stress by being more active.
Give money.
Everyone has had the “save money” resolution at some point in their lives, but what about give money? Saving money is good and very important, but giving money is also important. I know if you are in college like me, we don’t have a lot of extra cash floating around to give. But if we find that we eat out four times a week, we can cut that down to three times and the money we would spend on the fourth night, we can buy canned goods and donate them to a local charity.
Give your time.
This one can be difficult because everyone is always saying “I don’t have time.” In reality, we all have time. Think about all the times we spend on social media or on our phones looking at pointless videos. If we took that time to read the Bible or give back to our community, we would help those around us as well as benefit ourselves.
These are just a few ideas for New Years Resolutions that I have come up with, but I encourage you to think outside the box a little this year. Instead of picking a cliché resolution that you won’t keep up with in a few weeks, pick something that will benefit you in the long run.
Farewell, 2016. Hello, 2017!
