New Years Resolutions are always hard for me. Are they hard for you? Maybe you can find a good new year's resolution that will work for you—or you can reconsider one—from the list below!
To Consider:
Financial Resolution
Money is a huge facet of student and daily life. Do you want to save some of your money for a trip after high school or college? Do you want to save enough to buy textbooks, pay for a few months of gas, or cover bills for the whole year?
Budgets, money tracking apps, like Mint, jars with holes and the lids glued on, shoeboxes, and envelopes are all easy ways to
save your money and make it go towards something. If you don’t want to save for a goal, think about looking into a high yield savings account for your new year’s resolution!
Hobbies
Have you had your eye on a new hobby, but can’t convince yourself to take the leap? Well, look no further for your resolution for 2021! The trick to following through with a new hobby is to not get yourself in over your head at the beginning, and allowing yourself to be a beginner.
Here’s some advice that will save you a lot of money: don’t go wild and buy everything you could possibly need before starting out. The same advice applies to skills instead of hobbies that you want to learn, like cooking, working on your car, time management, healthy eating, money management, or study skills.
Group Resolutions
Ask your roommates or family members to make up some resolutions you can do together. Having a group do a resolution might mean going for walks together, sitting down to a meal more often, talking more frequently, or picking up a new hobby together. It’s a bigger version of the buddy system that might lead to some great results!
Steps
Break your resolutions up into steps! Step one can be something you can begin the first day, like creating envelopes with money amounts or writing down your workout. Step two can begin the next day, like following your workout or placing money in an envelope, and step three can be following through with your resolution the rest of the time.
Cleaning
This might be my new years resolution this year! Cleaning can either be a broad category or a specific thing. For example, you can say “I’ll work on decluttering my living space this year” or “I’ll put my dishes right into the dishwasher instead of setting them down in the sink.” Decluttering can also be as much or as little as you want if you go that route - 5 items in a room or 5 items a day, for example.
Goodwill
I don’t mean going to Goodwill to shop (although that can be a fun idea)! You can make goodwill your new years resolution and volunteer, donate, or do some other act of kindness every month, every week, or again as many times or as few times as you see fit. This can be sending someone a text to thank them or tell them hello!
To Reconsider:
Health
I know I’ve made a health related resolution before, and I didn’t follow through with it! You’ll need a lot of willpower to make one of these, and a buddy probably wouldn’t be amiss if you want to make your health a priority. Set reminders on your phone, figure out a beginner routine or a fitness app to follow, and get going!
Relationships
Relationships are also a huge thing to do for a New Year’s Resolution. If you can think of a relationship that you want to strengthen, disconnect with, or begin (whether it’s romantic or not), you can form a resolution around it!
Let’s say you’ve gone off to college and you’ve lost touch with a best friend or a family member, and you really miss talking to them. Decide how often you want to start talking with them again, make a commitment to yourself by setting phone reminders or marking it on a calendar, and reach out to let them know of your resolution!
I might even suggest using post it note reminders on the bathroom mirror, your desk, or your fridge if you need some visual reminders to help with this resolution. Who knows, whoever is on the other end of the relationship might want to make the same one, or similarly mark the dates and times on their end so you can strengthen the relationship!
If it’s romantic, I really have no advice from my own experiences, but I’m sure that you can find something to work on in that relationship that you can turn into a resolution.
Resolutions from Past Years
Have you made a resolution in the past that you really liked the idea of, but found it hard to stick to? Reconsider making the same resolution again! Ponder what made you not stick with the resolution, and brainstorm some different ways you can tackle it.
For example, did you make one to go to the gym on campus, but you didn’t have time last year? Home gyms are very popular right now, and a set of hand weights and a stability ball might make it easy for you to fit it in around schooling or in the morning before school.
Habits
Do you want to start a good habit, or work towards letting go of a bad one? Use that for your resolution! A good habit could be drinking more water, remembering to brush your teeth after breakfast, or studying at least three days in advance before tests this next year.
Good luck in the new year!
