Do New Year's resolutions make sense? What to consider

Once again a new year has begun and with this new year many people have also made good resolutions. But how sustainable are the old familiar New Year's resolutions? What are the problems with them and how can you fix them? In this blog article we take a closer look at the topic.

The most popular New Year's resolutions among Germans are Eating healthy (49%), exercising more(48%), saving more money (46%) and spending more time with family/friends (43%) (Source: Statista). I, too, would more or less claim that I want these resolutions from myself in some way or another. After all, there will hardly be anyone who sees one of these points as something bad. But the problem is not how good or bad the resolution is but how disciplined one pulls them through.

According to Statista 66% of people fail to keep their resolutions. The remaining third keep their resolutions for more than two months, and 20% claim not to break their resolutions at all. Incidentally, 14% of the respondents also stated that they had not made any resolutions at all.

So, as we can see from the numbers, very few resolutions are actually followed through. Of course, there can be hundreds of reasons for this, from poor goal setting to the classic lack of discipline. So it's important to define your goals precisely and not let the first minor setback get you down. You could, for example, use a journal or diary to write down your progress, this can help you not to lose sight of your goal and to bring a little more structure into your everyday life.

Of course, it's also helpful if you don't pick a resolution that is simply too ambitious. For example, if I don't do any sports at all, then my resolution should be to go jogging once or twice a week and not to work out at the gym five times a week. If I eat almost exclusively convenience foods, my goal should be to eat one fruit and one vegetable per day and not to turn my diet around 180°. Of course, one could also make these extreme transformations, but the probability of actually following through with them are many times smaller than if we set ourselves small achievable goals. If you notice that you are making significant progress, you can then expand your goals later. It is better to start small and increase than to fall on your face. After all, it is always good to face life with open armsbecause this is the only way to get the most out of life.

For my part, I am someone who likes to try things out and take on things. However, I don't wait until the new year, but constantly change things in my everyday life. If I notice that I'm letting sports slide, then I try to focus on that, if I notice that I haven't written much lately, then I try to schedule more time for writing in the coming weeks, and so on. Of course, a new year is an incredibly nice incentive to work on your mistakes, but I think it's always an incredibly nice incentive to work on yourself.

The time we have on this planet is very limited and should be used as well as possible in my opinion. The definition of what is used as well as possible is up to everyone. Whether you say time is well spent when you read a book, play an instrument, do some cooking, go for a walk or play video games is up to you. If you're not sure how to find the right resolutions, you can check out our post about Sartre's opinion about making decisions drop by.

I hope this post could help you a little bit to orientate yourself in the new year and maybe it gave you one or the other idea what you can work on this year. If you still have your own ideas or should you even be completely different opinion then just write your opinion in the comments.