New Year’s Resolutions Gone Wrong

What better way to bring in the new year than making exceedingly high standards for yourself that will only last a couple of months at most. Google defines a New Year’s resolution as a tradition in which a person resolves to continue good practices, change an undesired trait or behavior, to accomplish a personal goal, or otherwise improve their life. According to U.S. News and World Report, 80 percent of New Year’s resolutions fail by February. In no specific order, here are 10 resolutions that never make it to the new year.

10. Read more books
Reading books is a skill that is not practiced as often as it was in the past. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics most recent survey “American Time Use Survey,” found a decline in leisure reading – a record low 19% of Americans age 15 and older reported that they read for pleasure. The most reading we do today involves our phone and text messages. This challenge can even be rephrased to “read a book,” because in this day and age, many resort to videos and movies over books. 

9. Learn Something New
Many resolutions can be fairly easy to keep up with for up to a couple of weeks. Learning something new such as writing in cursive, tuning a guitar, or learning the alphabet in sign language can be easy to do but if you fail to make it a habit, it will crumble like all your other 2020 resolutions. 

8. Travel
Traveling is one of the best experiences you can give yourself. It opens your perspective in many ways as far as exploring a new culture, seeing new architecture and landscapes, trying new foods, and meeting new people. Even when you book in advance and plan everything out, traveling can be expensive. Another reason one might cancel on travel plans would be due to receiving inadequate time off from work.

7. Get out of Debt and Save Money
Getting out of a debt is and should be a common resolution for the new year. The average American household carries about $137,000 in debt according to the Federal Reserve’s latest numbers. You may notice that saving money and being in debt have nothing in common. Both are different because it is nearly impossible to save money when you are in debt. Several aspects of society prevent us from doing both at the same time. School loan interest and higher tuition rates are just a couple ways to keep you down and under the wall of financial freedom. Saving money can be difficult when the cost of living is so high, especially when there are other bills to pay. Due to wage inequality rising, the average middle class home makes roughly 23% less than what they should if their income rate had grown with the overall average according to inequality.org.

6. Spend More Time With Family / Calling Loved Ones
This resolution depends on several variables, some of which include age, responsibilities, distance, and even time. As a child, spending time with family was commonly  arranged by parents. As a college student, one may find it difficult to call home, especially if the student is involved at their school and is working a full- or part-time job. If your loved ones reside in a different state or timezone, coordinating mutual call times can grow to be inconvenient for one or more of the parties.

5. Reduce Stress
Reducing stress can be successful when you incorporate other activities into your life to assist in relieving your mental tension. Activities such as working out, yoga, listening to music, and reading can all help reduce stress. Sometimes it is difficult to accomplish one resolution without another one, which may be why most people are unable to hold true to their resolutions; it can be overwhelming. 

4. Eat Healthier
Attempting to resolve your eating habits for the new year is a complex task. Finding a meal more cost effective, easy on time, and relatively cheaper than a convience store snack is a challenge of its own. For those who lack time, money, or effort, eating healthy can be troublesome. Why spend more money, time, and effort on a meal when it can be as easy as opening a bag of chips. Especially when one bag contains as many calories as you need in a given day. Not to mention chips won’t expire for months, when fresh produce goes bad in about a week.

3. Get Back In Shape
Eating healthy and getting back in shape are hand-in-hand resolutions. Both require time, effort, and money if you decide you want a gym membership. Many times that first workout will make you so sore that returning after just one workout is painful. Other times an individual would rather relax in their downtime than have to work out and do twice as much laundry as they would if they had just chosen to stay inside and watch another season of a Netflix series.  

2. No Cursing/Swearing
Swearing may be used to relieve stress in certain situations but can also be linked to causing it as well. Curse words can offend the people around you while also affecting yourself by making you appear immature in the eyes of others. Cursing is a habit, it would be uncommon to eliminate profane language within a day or a week. As part of your vocabulary it can take a long time to break the habit.

1. More sleep
The toughest part about getting more sleep is finding the time. With all of these New Year’s resolutions and only 24 hours in a day, how is anyone supposed to fulfill their goals? Time management is key to balancing a schedule that works for you and your goals. It seems obvious that sleep would be a beneficial goal to keep around, but many times it is one of the first to go, along with cursing.