Happy New Years, Bearkats! I hope everyone had a great winter break. Now, I know a lot of us made some New Year’s Resolutions. You know that ‘New Year, New Me’ saying? Nine times out of ten our resolutions get broken, a lot of us may follow through with our resolutions and some of us might not follow through.
So, I researched some new year’s resolutions that are common among many college students and found that many of these are your common resolutions. I compiled a list of the top ten that are usually broken among people our age.
NYR#1: Lose weight and get fit
Okay, I will say it- I’m definitely guilty of this. I would tell myself “Bri, when you get back to Sam, go to the gym 3 days out of each week.” I’m on it until the third week, and then I get busy with school and I slowly stop going.
NYR #2: Quit smoking
Now let’s keep it real here. Some of us college students smoke cigarettes (or whatever else there is to smoke.) This is another common new year’s resolution. Strive to follow through with this resolution this year and quit smoking! This resolution could potentially save your life- really strive to stick to it and hold yourself accountable.
NYR #3: Save money
When that refund comes, I’m a broken record: “I’m going to save this money and spend it on necessary things.” Yes, I know the restaurants can be tempting and whatever Walmart has can be tempting as well and we fall victim to unnecessary spending. Now I’m not saying don’t go out to eat. You can go out to eat, but it’s best to do it moderation. Also, don’t go on a shopping spree every other weekend, put some of your money back for when you really need it. If you struggle with this resolution, try the weekly money jar trick. Every week you put in that amount of money, so for the first week you put in $1, the second week $2 and so on and so forth until the end of the year and just like that you’ve saved up quite a bit without even really thinking about it.
NYR #4: Drink less
Alcohol is great for a good time, but if it’s consumed way too much, then it can cause health issues. As of today, I haven’t had a drink in a month. That’s good willpower for me. There are some of us who want to calm down on the consumption of alcohol, but it’s just so good we can’t put it down.
NYR #5: Eat healthier and diet
Some of us try to put the burgers down and pick up the salad, but it is hard. I’m not even going to lie- it’s really hard. Those nachos and fajita tacos look good and they ARE good so we tend to be like “Well, I’ll start my diet tomorrow or next week.” And as the time gets closer and closer to start dieting, we might continue to put it off for another day.
NYR #6: Get organized
This can be a hassle sometimes if you’re not fully set on keeping things in order. I always say, “I’ll do it tomorrow or this coming weekend,” and whenever I say this, I get lazier to the point where I don’t want to organize whatever I planned on organizing.
NYR #7: Be less stressed
We all can attest to this. We want to be less stressed, but when things like back to back exams, papers or a financial crisis hit us, we can become overwhelmed. We can’t help it sometimes. It can be too much. You want to stop stressing, but life happens. I’m not saying stress won’t happen, but we can try to avoid it to the best of our ability. We can’t completely get rid of stress, however there are many tricks to destressing. Read a book, take a nap, listen to music, the list is almost endless. Be sure to find what helps you destress so you don’t fall off this resolution!
NYR #8: Spend more time with family
We want to spend time with the people we love, but sometimes we don’t want to be bothered with planning and all the traveling. You want to be alone, but it’s important to spend time with our family.
NYR #9: Learn something new
Sometimes we become complacent in our routines that we don’t want to try anything new. Learning something new sounds fun, but when it comes to doing it, we might put it off. Not saying that all of us are like this, but there are some things we just don’t have the energy to do. We like to do things we’re used to doing. Try to learn something new this year!
NYR #10: Study more
Now I’ve made this resolution every time, and to be honest, I’ve fallen off the wagon. I’m pretty sure you guys fell off the wagon as well, but this time I’m going to try my hardest to stay positive and strong on the road to bettering my studying.
Now these New Year resolutions aren’t limited, think of the list you made or the couple you thought of at the beginning of this year just a few weeks ago. We all have habits, but let’s do things for the better.