A new year always brings about the potential for new goals, or new year’s resolutions. These resolutions are typically in relation to bettering your life – and who wouldn’t want to work towards improvement? One big area of focus tends to be health and wellbeing, especially fitness. The new year tends to be a natural time for people to begin new fitness goals, or a brand-new fitness regimen. But is doing so really worth it, and does it really pay off in the end? In today’s blog, we’ll be debating whether or not new year’s resolutions are really worth it.

New Year’s Resolutions

New year’s resolutions: some people love them, some people hate them. I’ve always been a big fan of new year’s resolutions. I’ve been making them for as long as I can remember, from when I was a little kid. I’m not sure where the desire really came from initially to start making them, but it’s a habit that has stuck with me for many years. My resolutions have varied across the years, but they almost always include some form of resolution towards becoming more fit. I suppose the start of a new year feels like a natural time to set resolutions for how you’ll work towards a better life, or a better self.

This year, though, I have begun to lean closer towards intention-setting rather than specific resolutions. One of these intentions includes moving my body more. Regardless of what you may wish to call them – new year’s resolutions, intention setting, or goals – I believe they all have a focus on working towards “bettering” one self. But do they really work? For all of our good intentions by feeling energized at the beginning of the year towards becoming “better”… How does it play out in reality?

Charting a new routine

Let’s take a look at an example to see how new year’s resolutions play out. To start off this year, I had an entirely new routine mapped out of how I was going to spend my mornings and evenings. It wasn’t anything major, but it did include some minor fitness aspects that I wanted to improve. I was all set to start this new routine earlier last week. The first couple of days went well, until suddenly, I came down with something and realized I had caught COVID. Very quickly, my new routine plans went down the toilet. I needed to focus on rest and recovery. The fitness-related goals I had been excited about a mere few days ago were no longer even close to being on my radar.

This may be a silly example, especially considering it is only the beginning of the year. However, I believe it illustrates a larger picture of what can occur when we set new goals. Something unexpected can come along and disrupt even the best intentions of resolutions we may have. Resolutions that are tied to the start of the new year have additional pressure because they are seen as having a specific timeline: starting at the beginning of the year, and ending once the year concludes. This timeline may cause you to feel that you can’t slip up, start late, or begin again. Perhaps the danger with these new year’s resolutions is if we don’t do them right on schedule, we may feel like we’ve failed, before even getting out the gate.

Worth the Hype?

The question remains: are new year’s resolutions really worth it? I think everyone may have a different answer to this question. For me personally, I’m not sure if they live up to the hype. I don’t believe you need to wait for a specific day to re-invent yourself or set new goals. Resolutions can be made any time of year, they don’t need to only be set out when we start a new year. Though it may be a practice many of us (including myself) choose to follow, we can always break the mold. We can chart a course that feels more in line with who we are and the goals we want to set, whenever we choose to set them.

This year, I didn’t set particular resolutions, but rather some intentions for the year. These intentions did inform the new routine I had created. Even though I may not have started off on the right foot, as I got derailed due to COVID – the beauty about having goals or intentions rather than specific new year’s resolutions is that you have the chance to begin again. It doesn’t need to start right after new year’s day, and if you slip up, it doesn’t mean it’s over either. You have the chance to start over at any time, and as many times as you need. I, for one, am looking forward to doing so the moment I’ve fully recovered – which truly illustrates to me the beauty of broad intentions rather than specific new year’s resolutions.

Tell me: what are your thoughts on new year’s resolutions? Do you prefer specific resolutions, intention-setting, or general goals? Let me know your thoughts in the comments!

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