Happy New Year, everyone! I’m always amazed and thankful when I I’ve made it through a year to meet and greet a new one. As Oprah Winfrey said, ‘Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right.’ What better way to get it right than to make a resolution? Work on yourself, do the right thing. Did you know that researchers say about 60% of us make New Year’s resolutions? Unfortunately, only about 8% of the people achieve them. That could be due to maybe not being able to teach old dogs new tricks. The other possibility is setting your goals too high.
Top 10 Most Common Resolutions
So, a new year, a new chance. Recurring resolution themes can be broken down into about 5 categories: learning, career, habits, finance and health. Anything look familiar?
- Diet or eat healthier
- Exercise more.
- Lose weight.
- Save more and spend less money.
- Learn a new skill or hobby.
- Quit smoking.
- Read more.
- Find another job.
- Drink less alcohol.
- Spend more time with family and friends.
How to Start the Year with a Failure
If you’re not in the lucky 8% your chances are better than 50% to fail before the end of January. The good news is don’t make a resolution to save money or spend less. That’s doomed big time.
Make the Resolution Stick
‘New Year is the first blank page of a 365 page book. Write a good one.’ Brad Paisley
How do you do that? Well, we’re human and humans tend to forget. If you’re really serious about this, write down your resolution. Put it somewhere where you can see it and be reminded. Telling people adds a bit of pressure, too.
No one said life would be easy. ‘Your success and happiness lies in you. Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you shall form an invincible host against difficulties.’ Helen Keller.
One last quote, well, for this post anyway. ‘It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves.’ William Shakespeare.
I’m no better than the rest. I basically quit making resolutions sometime in my 20s. It’s amazing what that can do to reduce stress! Reduce stress. Finally a resolution that I’ve been able to keep. WooHoo!
I hope everyone has a good 2020!
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