This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at CU Boulder chapter.
As January has drawn to a close, everyone’s New Year diets have become one cheat day after the next. The gym is slowly starting to clear out again, and it can seem like everyone is falling back into the familiar safety of old habits. So how can we propel ourselves into this new year with positive changes that will actually last? Here are seven “resolutions” absolutely anyone can do for you to start with:
1. Make your bed every day!
Alisa Anton via Unsplash
Sure, this one seems a bit simplistic, but it should be the first thing you do at the beginning of your day. It’s a way of kick-starting good habits for the rest of your day. If you ask Navy Seal William H. McCraven, he’d tell you something similar:
“If you want to change the world, start off by making your bed. If you make your bed every morning, you will have accomplished the first task of the day. It will give you a small sense of pride, and it will encourage you to do another task, and another, and another. And by the end of the day that one task completed will have turned into many tasks completed.
2. Pick your favorite water bottle and drink three times its capacity every day!
Photo by Dylan Alcock on Unsplash
It seems every health blog, your mom, and your friend are incessantly prattling on about how important hydration is for your body to function normally, for clear skin, etc. Well, this is always easier said than done. We all lead busy lives, running from one end of the city to the other in a day. Drinking three of your water bottle everyday is an easy and achievable goal to help keep you healthy!
3. Go to the gym just once a week. And then start going more often….
Photo by cottonbro from Pexels
I am just as guilty as anyone else of shirking the gym in favor of lying in my cozy bed to watch Netflix. We are constantly being bombarded with a new workout video every time we log onto social media or scroll through our favorite online magazines. However, it can be so difficult to drag yourself to the gym on a regular schedule if you aren’t already used to that lifestyle. So start off by going once this week. Then, go twice next week. Maybe go three times the week after. Listen to your body! Give it ample rest and recovery in between workout days! A healthy body takes time and gradual effort!
4. Pick a book you’ve always wanted to read and get through fifteen pages of it every day.
Anthony Tran / Unsplash
Do you remember that one book you always pass by in the bookstore or library or that you see all over Instagram? You know what I’m talking about. That book you know you might like if only you had the time to read it… Start now! Go buy that book and slowly make your way through it in little portions at a time. Maybe you’ll read before bed, between classes, or right when you wake up. Pick a time, pick your page minimum, and unwind from the day!
5. Pick up a hobby: play the ukulele, start blogging, try your hand at painting, knit scarves and blankets, go rock climbing, etc.
Daian Gan / Pexels
Is there anything you’ve ever wanted to try but haven’t for whatever reason? It can be as public or as personal as you would like to make it. The purpose is to actively take the time to create or do something that just genuinely makes you happy. It doesn’t have to be a grand endeavor that’ll bring you notoriety and fame (maybe it will) or change the course of nations (maybe it will). Just do something for yourself!
6. Plant the seeds of your favorite flower or succulent and care for it every week.
StockSnap via Pixabay
This is a cute way to decorate your dorm or apartment! Bonus points if it actually blooms and extra points if you can keep it alive for the rest of the year!
7. Don’t make any New Year’s Resolutions because you can change anything about your life whenever you choose to!
Pezibear on Pixabay
When a new year rolls around, there is a certain poetic power that we, as a society, ascribe to it in closing one chapter and opening the next. In reality, it is really just a simple matter of changing a single digit in the year when we write it down at the top of our homework.
If you want to make changes, it starts with you visualizing it and then pursuing it.
Don’t wait for an arbitrary date to take control of your own life!
Pranathi is a graduate from the University of Colorado Boulder. In her time with Her Campus at CU Boulder, she served as Editor-in-Chief and Campus Correspondent.
