Popular Goals for the New Year

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Malik Mulder

Students’ workout log to keep track of their exercise at the gym for the week.

“New Year, new me.” The mantra people tell themselves every New Year: People pick up new goals and new ways of life, or resolutions, to try and have a better year than before. A resolution is typically a firm decision to do or not to do something; they might want to feel better about themselves, be more organized, save more money, or possibly even give themselves a break. Whatever the resolution, it is something important to that person.

The most popular New Year’s Resolution is losing weight and living healthier. According to Forbes, in the United States, 23% percent of people set a goal for living healthier. This could include going on walks or eating more homemade meals. 20% of people set a goal for losing weight. A lot of people set these goals and stay with them for about a month. But after that, most people tend to give up. This could be because they were not organized or because they didn’t focus on themselves more.

One reason people tend to give up on their goals is because they aren’t as organized as they should have been. People don’t realize that organizing their life can have a really great and long lasting impact on their life. The first step to organizing is to get a planner. You want to find a planner that works best for you. This might be a calendar where you write one or two things you have to do in a day, or this might be a bigger planner where there is plenty of space to write out your week all at once.

Journaling could also be a great way to organize your life. Every time something comes to mind, write it down, it could be anything: What you want to eat for dinner, where you want to travel in the future, or what you want to do with your friends this weekend. Something big or small, it doesn’t matter. Organizing could help you start to keep working toward your initial goals and could also help you work on yourself and your happiness.

Another great way to help you work on your goals is saving money. Not only is budgeting a great goal to keep in mind but it may also help with your other New Year’s resolutions. A lot of people like to save money for different things, such as going on trips, buying things for themselves, gifts for others, or just fun and exciting purchases. Whatever the case, it is easier to save money than to use your money that you might need for other things. If you have a bank account the best thing to do would be create a savings account. That way when you get a paycheck you can put a certain amount of it, say one third, in the account and still have some left over for other important things.

If you do not have a bank account you could take whatever money you get in a week and save some of it in a jar. You could also create a system where every ten and five dollar bill you get, you save in a jar and open it after six months or so. There are a host of different ways to save money but it all comes down to how much and how often you are willing to save.

Overall, New Year resolutions are a great way for people to get a good start to the New Year. These goals are an efficient way to stay more organized and can help you throughout the year and even the following. Whether you follow through with them for a month or the whole year, they will give you a sense of comfort and self love that is always very important.