Each year, many people make a New Year’s resolution with the hope and ambition to make a positive change. But in recent years, there’s been a significant drop in the number of people that actually make a New Year resolution. In 2021, just 27% of UK adults decided to commit to a resolution in 2022.
Every year and with a few days to go until Christmas, we’ll start to see a swarm of gym membership sales, healthy living ads, Christmas holiday stress relief campaigns and the promotion of New Year motivation – “2023: it’s a new year!”
So, perhaps you’re planning a new fitness programme to improve your health, sticking to a healthier diet or determined to make better financial choices. These new year goals seem to always have a recurring theme – we don’t always stick to them. Then why do we make New Year’s resolutions?
Why we make New Year resolutions
New Year resolutions were started 4,000 years ago by the Ancient Babylonians as a celebration in honour of the new year. But back then, this took place in mid-March when crops were planted. They believed that if they kept to their word, the Gods would look favourably on them for the upcoming year. Fast forward to the 21st century, the ancient New Year resolution tradition has been modified and evolved somewhat. We now make a promise to ourselves to start doing something good, or to stop doing something not so good, like giving up a bad habit.
But the challenge for all of us is actually sticking to the resolutions we make. There are often ‘good’ reasons why we don’t do this; well, we justify they’re good reasons (and end up feeling guilty in the process!). But partly it is down to several things:
- We don’t take accountability for our actions, such as not committing to or sticking to an exercise plan or gym membership when we have vowed to lose weight.
- We don’t track and review our methods and progress in reaching these goals.
- We don’t plan and organise our calendars to help us stick with our new resolution lifestyle.
- We set unrealistic targets, setting ourselves up to fail.
- We try to ‘do it alone’ rather than getting support from family, friends and professionals (if needed).
- We give up too easily!
In this modern age of technology, there is really no excuse for not tracking our progress, or for lack of planning. There are so many apps we can use on our smartphones and other mobile devices, many of which send you daily reminders, to help us stick to the resolutions we make for the New Year. There’s also plenty of support and valuable advice out there, too.
Most common New Year resolutions
Every New Year, many of us make the same resolutions. The top 10 resolutionslast year in the UK were:
- Exercise more (50%)
- Save more money (49%)
- Eat more healthily (48%)
- Lose weight (40%)
- Spend more time with family and friends (28%)
- Cut down spending on living expenses (21%)
- Spend less time on social media (20%)
- Give up smoking (20%)
- Do more for the environment (18%)
- Cut down on alcohol consumption (18%)
- Improve job performance (16%)
- Reduce job stress (15%)
- Go vegetarian/vegan (5%).
Are any of these familiar to you? Chances are that one, or more, of these were your 2022 New Year resolutions. What’s also interesting is that many on the list have far more relevance today than they did a year ago, such as cutting down spending on living expenses and saving more money.
Recent statistics revealed that Gen Z (late teens to early twenties) are most likely to set resolutions that are money-focused (49%). But maybe that’s because they are just starting out on their career ladder and other life priorities haven’t materialised as yet.
Tips to sticking to your 2023 New Year resolution
When we make a New Year resolution, we have all the right intentions and motivation to stick to them (this year!). But we know it’s not easy, particularly in today’s economic and energy crisis. So, we’ve put together our top tips to help you make 2023 the year your resolution becomes a long-term reality.
Set goals that motivate and influence you
There’s no bigger dent to your self-esteem and self-worth than feeling that you’ve failed to stick with a New Year resolution. So, make sure you set goals that motivate you, and will have a positive influence on your life. Align your goals with:
- Your personal or professional life goals.
- Your priorities in life.
- Your dreams and aspirations.
Be realistic
Making sure your resolutions are realistic and practical is key to keeping you going. Think about what you want to achieve, then how you’re going to achieve it. A good guide is to use the S.M.A.R.T. methodology and make sure your resolutions are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-bound, i.e. you decide when you want to reach a particular milestone in your progress towards your goal, or when you want to hit your target. Write it down and create a practical, realistic plan of action.
Stay positive
This is probably one of the hardest aspects to stick to. In fact, a large majority of people have quit their New Year resolution just two weeks into the year! What has become known as Quitter’s Day, falls on the second Friday of January; it’s not surprising. Who wants to venture out into the cold to go to the gym, or opt for a salad instead of a hearty cooked meal? The pull of Netflix can be overwhelming!
So, how can you stay positive and keep going well beyond Quitter’s Day?
- Outline a resolution plan for the days, weeks and months ahead to keep you on track.
- Create a ‘pros’ and ‘cons’ list and write it out – seeing it in black and white will boost your determination.
- Don’t be shy and talk about your resolution, and your progress with friends, family and colleagues.
- Surround yourself with positive people that are supporting and encouraging you to keep going.
- Practise positive self-talk.
- Track your progress to keep you positive and looking forwards.
- Reward yourself!
- Don’t beat yourself up if you miss a training session, don’t put as much away in savings as last month, or have that ‘naughty’ cream cake – you deserve it!
New Year resolutions are hard to stick to, and sometimes even harder to plan. You may not know where to start or find the self-motivation to make these practical and beneficial changes, but with the help of Really Helpful Club’s Directory members, you really can make your resolutions a reality, and make positive changes to your life.
