There’s a reason why New Year’s resolutions are so popular—the end of one cycle and the beginning of another is the most natural time for reflection. With the advantage of hindsight, you can look back over your year and see which accomplishments you made, which plans fell through, and how the surprises that came your way shaped your path. Then, you can be a better judge of what things you’d like to improve on throughout the coming year, and resolve to do so.
However, when making New Year’s resolutions, people often encounter two common problems. First, they may struggle to articulate what their exact resolution should be. For example, lots of people resolve to be healthier in the New Year, but that’s not a very specific goal. Second, roughly 80% of people struggle to stick to their New Year’s resolutions for longer than six weeks.
With that in mind, take a look at some of the most popular New Year’s resolutions for inspiration, and learn how to keep your own resolutions specific, measurable, and achievable. With a little planning and support, you can make 2023 a great year.
Common New Year’s resolutions for you to consider
When it comes to making positive changes for the New Year, half the battle is just picking an aspect of your daily life to work on. Here are a few popular categories:
- Exercising more — There are so many different ways to fit more exercise into your routine, and it’s important to remember that everybody is on their own fitness journey. For some people, exercising more could mean weightlifting every day before work. For others, it could mean taking the dog for extra long walks on the weekends.
- Making new friends — This is a resolution that you can’t force to happen, but you can put yourself in a good position to meet interesting people. Follow your interests—if you’re a bookworm, try going to a few public readings or joining a book club. Turn things that you could do alone (like trying a new recipe) into a communal activity (like taking a cooking class).
- Saving money — There are two ways to approach this kind of resolution: doing something and not doing something. Doing something could be as simple as collecting your spare change in a jar, or it could mean putting a percentage of your paycheck into a new savings account for your kids’ college fund. Not doing something could look like bringing coffee to work instead of going to the café on your break, or resolving not to order takeout more than once per week.
- Lowering stress — This resolution often goes hand in hand with others, because making positive changes in your physical health, social life, and financial wellbeing are sure to lower your stress. Still, there are lots of active choices you can make to supplement those changes, from improving your sleep schedule and practicing meditation to seeking counseling.
If you’re still searching for a resolution that suits you, some other popular options are quitting smoking, spending more time with family, learning a new skill, making a career move, and reading more.
Best methods for sticking to your resolution
When people struggle with their resolutions, it’s not because they’re weak or lazy. They often unwittingly set themselves up for failure with goals that are too general, hard to quantify, and unrealistic. Here’s how you can avoid that:
- Be specific — Let’s say your resolution is to lose weight. You can break down that larger goal into smaller components, like eating a fruit or vegetable with every meal, or cutting back harmful habits like drinking to only once a week. The more specific, the better. For example, you could resolve to do 30 minutes of yoga at 7:30 a.m. every day before work. This is a more process-oriented approach that’s not as overwhelming as obsessing over a final product.
- Be measurable — If your goal is to read more, that’s great, but how much is more? How will you know when you’ve arrived at more? Incorporating measurable steps into your overall resolution is key. You could make a time-based plan where you start with only 10 minutes of reading per night for a week, then increase that amount by 5 minutes every week until you’re at 30 minutes or an hour.
- Be achievable — It’s important that you have realistic expectations for your resolutions. It’s much harder to feel motivated to work on a challenge that seems insurmountable. For example, your goal shouldn’t be to become fluent in another language by next year. Simply turning your focus from “becoming fluent” to “practicing Spanish on Duolingo for 15 minutes per night” will do wonders for your motivation.
- Be accountable — Having a mutual support system with a community of people who share your goals is the best way to stay on track and keep progressing. Meetup can help you find a group of like-minded folks to support your resolutions, whether you want to get out and walk more in Central Park, learn how to knit at the best coffee shops in Denver, or simply connect with fun people your age and explore Chicago.
People who feel like they’re part of a communal public goal often see more success in their resolutions. You can easily create your own Meetup group and make that feeling into a reality.
Last modified on January 2, 2024
