It’s finally 2024, and New Year’s resolutions have been a popular subject of discussion on campus since the spring semester started. Although some of my fellow students are excited at the prospect of being able to reinvent themselves this year, or are just interested in making a positive change, I’ve heard more about the stress surrounding New Year’s resolutions than the joy of them.
Personally, I’ve always found myself in the second camp. When I was younger, I saw New Year’s resolutions as an opportunity for me to give something up or begin a new hobby.
However, as time went on, I began to see the entire phenomenon from a new perspective. I found myself cheating on giving up soda or quickly dropping my new hobby such as painting. This always resulted in an undesirable feeling of guilt. I would ask myself, why can’t you just stick to what you said? Do you not want to improve yourself this year? Do you always want to stay the same?
This negative way of thinking made me realize that New Year’s resolutions often result from those negative feelings about ourselves being there in the first place. By promising to improve aspects of our lives, we focus on what we’ve been doing “wrong.” That certainly doesn’t sound like the positive perspective that I strive to adopt for myself.
In addition to generally bringing on a sense of stress, my New Year’s resolutions never actually being resolved made me wonder why I even bothered to make any in the first place. This is why I’ve altered my mindset from New Year’s resolutions to last year’s gratitude. Every year on Jan. 1, I write down a list of things I was grateful for over the course of the last year.
This year on New Year’s Day, I reflected on 2023. From concerts with friends and family vacations to joining Her Campus, I found myself overjoyed with how many events and people in my life I am grateful for.
Expressing gratitude is a simple way to improve happiness, increase self-esteem and change your perspective on your life. Although everyone feels from time to time like they wish they could be living a slightly improved life, practicing gratitude reminds us that everything and everyone we have in our lives is special and important.
Ever since I altered New Year’s resolutions to last year’s gratitude, I have always been able to step into a new year feeling positive and grateful as opposed to negative and regretful.
Happy New Year, and here’s to a 2024 filled with gratitude!