It’s warm outside and you are finished planting your crops for the season, you stop to givethanksandmakepromises tothegodstopaybackolddebts orreturnborroweditems.With highhopesthatifyoukeepyour promise, the gods will show favor to you and your crops will be abundant. This is what the ancient Babylonians did as a precursor for modern day New Year’s resolutions.
Current day resolutions usually consist of random acts of kindness, to stop gossiping, to read one book a month, eat less junk food, and work out more. The list is endless of things that people feel that they should do more of or try to do less of.
What did you resolve to do last year? Were you successful? About 91% of people who make an actual resolution are not successful. That leaves 9% of people succeeding in making a change for the year.
There are also less and less people making resolutions. I spokewithmultiplepeopleand out of 20 only six are setting a goal for the new year.
Kristy Jones, of Madill, said she wants to make healthier choices in life and learn to say no. Both of those can be hard, especially saying no. It can be so easy to say yes to things, people, and situations that saying no can be very difficult for some people.
Making choices to make your life healthier and happier are the general themes of resolutions. For example, working out to feel better than to look better is something that can be accomplished with a support system and setting smaller goals to help achieve bigger ones.
Having a financial plan for the upcoming year is something that a lot of people focus on after the spending spree of the holidays is over. “Better financial budgeting” is what Leslie Mowles, of Durant, wants to work on this coming year.
Setting specific goals for what you have a passion and drive for can help motivate you to succeed. Then there is always the one sure fire way to keep your resolution and that is to not set any at all, leaves less room for failure and disappointment. This seems to be a growing trend.
Most of the people I spoke with, including Angela Smith of Kingston, said they do not have a New Year’s Resolution. Mostpeoplesaidthatthey did not need the motivation of the new year to set and achieve personalgoals,becauseyoucan set goals and work on yourself at any time.
By setting goals for the New Year, you are taking away from reflecting over the last year or looking ahead to the new one. Making resolutions can create undue pressure to accomplishsomethingonsome imaginary timetable.
There are also people that feel that they do not follow through with resolutions so why bother. If you are in the 9% that sets and follows through, congratulations! For the other 91% that are not as successful, try setting more specific challenging goals. Look for things you are passionate about and remember you don’t have to make it all happen overnight.