New Year's Resolutions

I’ve never really been sure if I agreed with the concept of New Year’s Resolutions, why wait until a specific date to improve your life? Why the 1st January, can’t I better myself all year? Although I do still believe that if you want to make a positive change in your life then there’s no need to delay until the New Year, I also see that it can be a fresh start. We see it as new opportunity to improve on the old version of ourselves. On the whole, I think New Year’s Resolutions can be a really positive thing, however they do often have some issues.

First of all, after a year like 2020, which can only be described as a shitshow (excuse the language), we have no idea what the new year will bring. While it is good to be optimistic, New Year’s Resolutions often ask for significant changes and can be impacted by external factors, for example ‘travel more’ or ‘go to the gym more’ both rely on the pandemic calming down enough for restrictions to life. Also, resolutions that focus on self-improvement, like ‘eat more healthily’ can lead to an attitude of punishing ourselves. A lot of people have found themselves comfort eating their way through 2020, while this might not be the healthiest lifestyle choice and a lot of us have gained ‘lockdown weight’, we don’t deserve to be punished for that. The new year is a great opportunity to start eating healthily but setting that as a resolution gives us the chance to fail and punish ourselves for that failure, despite the fact that comfort food might be the only thing bringing us some joy in a rubbish situation (such as the pandemic). Hopefully 2021 will be a better year but we have no guarantee of that, and the start of the year is bound to be a continuation of 2020’s madness.

Also, if too vague the resolutions can be basically impossible to stick to, or at least impossible to keep track of. I think we should all agree to stop making vague resolutions like ‘lose weight’ or ‘read more’, instead setting specific challenges to ‘lose a stone’ or ‘read 50 books’ (my resolution for 2020 was to read 50 books and I finally completed it this week!).

That being said I do have a few resolutions of my own for 2021, they are as follows:

1. Work out at least three times a week – whether that is going for a run, doing some yoga, or completing an at-home YouTube work-out (we all loved Chloe Ting in the lockdowns)

2. Keep a diary – I don’t mind if I don’t write in it every day but at least 3 entries a week, because I want to be able to look back on my university days when I’m old. Also, I kind of want to be Bridget Jones…

3. Actually, stick to a skincare routine and stop picking at my spots – I’ve got a very bad habit of picking at my skin and spots and making them a hundred times worse than they were to start with, so I’ve ordered some nice new skincare and I really want to stick to some sort of routine.

4. Read 52 books – in 2020 I set my challenge at 50, and just about completed it. 52 would be one a week, so I think that’s an achievable next step.

5. Post on this blog at least once a fortnight – once a week seems a lot what with university too, but once a fortnight seems do-able.

So, while resolutions can be flawed, they definitely have merit if done right. I’ll try to update you on how mine are going at some point, I’m hopeful that I’ll succeed, but who knows what 2021 has in store for us. Fingers crossed it’s a good year.

What are your resolutions for 2021?