It's crazy to think that this will be the last year with a "teen" in it until the next millennium. Just think about that; not until the date contains a 3 in front of it will we have another year ending in teen. Thinking about the year 3000 just sounds bizarre. I'll keep my mind in 2019.
Before I begin, shout out to Megan Pyrett for the idea from Instagram! If you want your ideas published, stay up to date on my social media for incoming surveys and questions!
Speaking of 2019, it officially has been almost a whole week into the new year. I know for certain 2018 is over, and that's thanks to social media. With the introduction of Instagram stories, this past year was filled with multiple pictures highlighting every month of 2018. Snapchat created a slideshow of photos and videos from each user's memories to reminisce the past. While I did find many of these annoying, (it's literary an excuse to spam photos), it's a way to share how your 2018 went and get excited for the incoming year without posting permanent pictures or videos. Still rather annoying though, if I'm being honest.
The biggest "tradition" of New Year's is New Year's resolutions. The whole "new year, new me" posts. A younger version of myself remembers making fun of these posts. The reason is because of the stereotype behind New Year's resolutions; we promise ourselves we'll do things to better ourselves but rarely follow through? Why is that?
Well for one, what exactly is a New Year's Resolution? According to Wikipedia (not the best source, but I liked the way they worded this), "A New Year's resolution is a tradition, most common in the Western Hemisphere but also found in the Eastern Hemisphere, in which a person resolves to change an undesired trait or behavior, to accomplish a personal goal or otherwise improve their life".
What are some common resolutions? Statisa uses a great image on their page for a lot of repetitive ones. Some of these don't come as a shock, but it's still a good image to oversee what other people are also trying different.
There's a point to these resolutions. We are meant to find flaws in our lives and improve them, characteristics about ourselves that could be fixed, and new things we want to try. That being said, only 12% of people will actually keep their New Year's Resolutions, according to an article from LifeHack called "Top 10 Reasons Why New Year's Resolutions Fail". I'm not a math expert, but that's a pretty low amount.
The article is attached here if you're interested in reading the whole article, I'm going to highlight some aspects of it below.
https://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifestyle/10-reasons-why-new-years-resolutions-fail.html
Many of these reasons are pretty reasonable: trying too hard, overthinking, or trying to rush things. What stood out to me were the more personal reasons; you're not enjoying the process and you don't have a support system were my two favorites.
It's not about getting to your destination. It's not about reaching the tip of the mountain. It's all about the journey, the climb, the trip. The work put in is what makes the end results satisfying, so enjoy it! Getting a little philosophical, but you get the idea.
Don't do this alone! Get others involved. I don't mean hire your siblings to be your personal trainers, but enlist their help for motivation and support. You need a hard headed individual to kick ya into shape when you start feeling lethargic. We all need a little tough love every now and then, yanno?
A new year means a different date on your papers. But it's more than that. It's a chance for us to try new things. Look, you don't have to overbear yourself with a list of impossible changes. It is a good idea, however, to maybe try one resolution, something simple at first. If you wanna go hard, then go to work! Regardless of what you do, try something that's new to you in 2019.
You could start by maybe reading more of my posts once you're done. Wink Wink.
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