Why New Year’s resolutions can be more harmful than helpful

A year of wellness, gym, skincare, healthy meals, and academic achievement. A year of happiness, hot girl walks, and healing – or so Instagram would have us believe. But when it comes to the attainability of these things, I begin to wonder if they’re possible. Why is it that over 90% of New Year’s resolutions are abandoned after just a few months, with some after just a few weeks. Goals are always important, but decisions about your life can be made every minute, every hour, and every week, not least at the beginning of a new calendar year. Pressure is another factor that can never be underestimated, as it seems to arise every January. With pressure comes expectations, often higher than is achievable, which can lead to feelings of failure and self-doubt if you fail to achieve specific goals.

Resolutions can be made on any day of the year. It takes, on average, 66 days to turn a new behaviour into a habit – something which is just as possible to achieve in July as it is in January. If going to the gym at 6 am every morning is something on your to-do list as soon as the festive period has ended, you simply cannot take a harsh approach with yourself if you skip a couple of sessions. In the cold and dark depths of winter, wellness, exercise, and socialising take a natural step back, which we should consider when setting these targets for ourselves.

When considering new goals to live our best life, it often seems easier to face these with a ‘so-called’ clean slate, i.e., a new year. But this narrative is simply just that – a narrative! From all angles of the media and conversations with friends and family, the topic of New Year’s resolutions seems to crop up repeatedly. I ask myself why we aren’t having these conversations during the rest of the year or at the beginning of each calendar month. Only having discussions about personal goals at one point during the years puts even more pressure on them to come true, often failing to consider that it takes a significant amount of trial and error to adopt new habits and ways of life. Companies – such as Equinox gym – have actually banned new memberships being purchased on the 1st of January as part of their new campaign ‘We Don’t Speak January’. Speaking on behalf of this new campaign, the company believes that exercise and going to the gym should be an everyday, sustainable choice, which cannot be made at the beginning of the year as ‘January is a fantasy, delivered to you in a pastel coloured box.’ With companies backing up the anti-resolution narrative, it makes it clear that the perception of a new year being the only time to start fresh is warped. 

We have always been taught to aim high and chase after our dreams. Sometimes, these aims can only be achieved by being broken down into manageable chunks. Making substitutions and reductions can improve the longevity of things you want to implement into your daily life. Instead of working out every day, implement a training schedule with rest days to look forward to and various exercises to keep your brain and body stimulated. If improving your grades is important this year, break it down and schedule more manageable study sessions with incorporated rewards and group sessions to keep you motivated. Being motivated can imply that you need to want to do things to make them happen. There will be many days when these things are the last thing on your mind. Just getting them done is winning half the battle. 

Lastly, if resolutions don’t materialise as you’d hoped, or you fall out of love with a new habit you’re trying to implement, don’t see it as a failed attempt to improve your life. Maybe you need to change how you’re working at something, or maybe it doesn’t fit well into your life. Either way, nobody can operate all areas of their life at total capacity all the time, especially after a significant rest period such as the Christmas break. Yes – January is a time for new beginnings, but so is the beginning of every day, week, and month. No – you cannot ensure success in the New Year, but you can attempt it whilst following some simple guidance, which makes your goals more likely to materialise. 

So, I urge you to see your New Year’s resolutions differently. It’s no longer a new year, new me. Now, It’s a new day and a fresh start. But don’t forget that the most important thing is continuous progress that you can sustain throughout the year.

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