New Year's Resolutions

There's something refreshing about a new year. A clean slate. New year, new you. I'm sure you've heard that a million times this past month.

I've never been one to hop on the bandwagon of New Year's Resolutions. Why bother when the stereotype is to quit by the time February rolls around? I think part of the reason I've never made a New Year's resolution is because I didn't want to fail myself.

I've never put the time and energy into thinking up a New Year's resolution- it's a hard task to do. I think what makes them hard for people to keep is that they think up impossible goals that are too broad.

When coming up with a resolution, it's important to keep things realistic. The most common example is weight loss. Losing 50 pounds in a month isn't realistic, so of course it's going to be discouraging when that goal isn't achieved in four weeks or less. This discouragement leads people to quit within the first month of the year and fall back into old habits.

It's also important to be narrow in on the exact goals you want to accomplish. Being more detailed gives you a better idea of how to plan out that specific goal, and you also have more information to base yourself off of when looking back to see if you accomplished your exact goal. An example of this is 'eating healthier.' What does that look like to you? Narrowing this down could instead mean stating that you won't be consuming soft drinks or eating processed foods, and then you could even go as far as to define those things like processed foods- i.e. "any food that has been processed in some way or is not in it's natural form."

If you're lost in thinking up any resolutions, start with identifying your bad habits- cursing, drinking, binge eating, biting your nails, etc. Use these to form your goals around.

I hope you make a new year's resolution for yourself this year, and I hope you push yourself to stick to it. Tell people about them! It will help to motivate you to keep them. By posting mine here, I hope to hold myself accountable for them.

My New Year's Resolutions for 2018:

1. Lose 10 pounds.

2. Start up a YouTube channel- and upload regularly (once a month or every other month)

3. Start up a blog- and post regularly (once a week or every other week)

4. Go to college and study nutrition.

5. Live in the present, and learn to be content and appreciate where I am.

Whenever you're reading this, comment down below your New Year's Resolutions and/or some of your tips for keeping up with a resolution!