Entering the holiday season throws many of us into a Bridget Jones-esque frenzy of self reinvention as we compile lists of resolutions for the New Year, only to have forgotten or forgone most of them by the following weekend. How realistic really is it to put so much pressure on ourselves with the list of promises and restrictions we annually create and pledge?
A survey by Finder found that 66% of Brits made New Year resolutions for 2024, including 97% of Gen Z. What causes our generation to be so obsessed with starting anew and undertaking self improvement? One factor must be the turn social media and marketing take toward the holiday season. Users are flooded with an inundation of content announcing “new year, new me” and influencers’ resolutions and suffocated with an inevitable rise in fitness and diet content. Brands also take this as an opportunity to push their products even harder under the guise of a new beginning for the user, as companies attempt to align themselves with popular consumer resolutions. The result is wasting money on unnecessary purchases under the pretext of a fresh start, when realistically one could argue that as much changes between New Year’s Eve and January 1st as when the clock hits midnight any other night.
However, for many, the holiday period provides an occasion to slow down, potentially to return home to spend time with family and friends and to briefly forget work and study obligations. This opportunity to look inwards and collect your thoughts, away from external pressures, shouldn’t be underestimated. Self-reflection is healthy and vital as your life changes, so New Year can be a useful landmark for looking back at your progress or deciding that you’d like to make a change to something worth adapting in your routine. For me, my New Year’s resolutions will be to keep up a consistent sleep schedule, as I’ve realised this autumn how much of a difference it makes; the start of a new academic year can prompt a lot of necessary changes.
On the other hand, this can often lead to unrealistic expectations being set. If you’re hoping to be more active in the new year, it can easily veer into number-based ideals of weight loss or hours spent in the gym, as we innately seek to quantify our progress to feel accomplished. The same goes for cutting out entire food groups, or habits. An all-or-nothing mindset is unhealthy and very difficult to keep up - the goal should be to improve your life in a sustainable and energising way, rather than imposing harsh rules and restrictions that leave you feeling disappointed in yourself.
If you don’t manage to fulfill all your New Year’s resolutions, don’t get discouraged. A YouGov survey found that only 31% of people kept all of their resolutions in 2023, and half of the surveyed group managed to stick to at least some of their resolutions. For me, the best way to go about deciding what to change, and then sticking to those resolutions, is to pick individual habits and to make a plan rather than a vague blanket statement of ideals that overreach and therefore, fail. This reduces that all-or-nothing mindset and also means you’re more likely to go about enacting a genuine change, and overall bettering yourself. Learning to set more attainable goals helps avoid feelings of failure, but you also should remember that failure is a normal part of change, and only a temporary setback. So, setting high goals may take more time than just a year to obtain.
Despite the flipside to creating New Year’s resolutions, overall they’re a wholly positive concept and can be a force for real change as long as they’re taken with moderation - aim to set small, attainable goals rather than grand sweeping ideas. The new year can mean as much or as little of the new you as you’d like, so choose wisely and remember to look after yourself in these winter months! The holiday season should be a positive time of reflection rather than a reminder of how disappointed you are, so go into it with forgiveness. You never know how much you can achieve if you put your mind to it.
Edited by Phoebe Huzij
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