New Year, New You?

Every year when we hit January, we feel like we have to make those New Year’s resolutions. Sometimes we are able to keep that resolution for the whole year and sometimes we keep it for just a week. For many people the resolution is to make no resolutions, so they do not feel the guilt of breaking it within a week.

Babylonians are recorded to be the first people to make New Year’s resolutions about 4,000 years ago. Babylonians, along with those in Rome, used New Year’s resolutions as a means to please the Gods so that they may gain favors. In today’s society, we use New Year’s resolutions as self-improvement, which is one of the reasons it makes it difficult for us to keep our New Year’s resolutions.

Tips on how to be more successful in keeping your New Year’s resolutions:

• Don’t feel like you have to do it at New Year’s
• Keep it simple
• By picking a resolution that is too big, you are more likely not to want to keep going.
• Then, the more successful you are at what you’ve picked for yourself, you can start to increase/challenge yourself.

• Have a support system
• Pick something that is meaningful to you

Carmen Stites, LCPC