Why I Don’t Make New Years Resolutions

We are about to head into 2015, can you believe it? I don’t know where this year went.

It’s that time again when everyone makes a big list of the things that they are going to change about themselves during the new year.

In the past, I have randomly thrown out a few “resolutions” of stuff I was for sure going to change in the upcoming year. But in the past years, I’ve realized that I don’t want to make resolutions for the new year anymore.

Why I Don’t Make New Year Resolutions

As someone who loves to plan things, is obsessed with lists and lives a life packed with organization, you would think that this would be something I really love to do.

It just isn’t.

While I think it is great to set goals for yourself about changing certain things about your life, whether it’s in terms of health, exercise, work, etc… it seems like most people make these goals for the upcoming year but then never follow through with them.

Making new year resolutions almost seems like a fad to me. Like, people do it because everyone else does it. Whether or not they actually keep up with what they have stated they want to do is irrelevant.

I know there are some who really work hard to make and keep these resolutions and make some necessary personal changes, which is awesome!

I am not saying that people shouldn’t do this at all. But why do we just do it at the beginning of a new year?

Shouldn’t making goals for yourself or resolutions to change be something that occurs more than one time a year when one year ends and another one begins? That’s why I don’t make resolutions for New Years.

Personally, I want to make goals more than just one time a year. I don’t want to place all of these huge expectations for the upcoming year on myself at one time, especially when you can easily spread out these things throughout the year.

As for the goal that is almost ALWAYS on the list of every person, getting in shape or getting to a healthier state should be something that we all strive for anyways isn’t it? I’m not saying that we all need to set out to fulfill some unrealistic expectation of “beauty” according to society, because I don’t think that’s true.

Health and getting into a shape that YOU are happy with should be a goal that we have all year round and something that we continue to remind ourselves of on a daily basis. Instead of burning yourself out at the beginning of the year by setting a huge resolution to lose _____ pounds, why not set smaller goals throughout the year that can be a constant reminder? To me, this makes more sense.

Another one that seems to be widely popular is being debt-free or reaching a certain salary mark in your career. While these are great goals, again, being debt-free is something that takes time and it is something that can be started before New Year’s and well into the year after that if necessary.

It also seems like people just take New Year’s Resolutions to the crazy place by putting things on their resolution list that are… ridiculous or entirely unattainable. For instance; “Don’t drunk text or dial”, “Take more naps instead of working”, “Finish an entire chap stick”, and “Don’t keep your fortune cookies messages for life advice”. These are less like resolutions to change and more like common sense that people should just be doing anyways! Or not be… although naps are amazing.

I can’t really take something like New Year’s Resolutions seriously when some people have “don’t drunk text” on their list.

Instead of making a list at New Year’s of all the things I want to change or make happen that year, I constantly set goals for myself and make smaller steps all throughout the year to achieve them.

I don’t really think that there is a right or a wrong way to go about this particular subject, these are just my own personal thoughts on it. What do you think about New Year’s resolutions?

*Cheers to the New Year*