A Brief History
With today being December 18, 2019, the year is coming to an end, the holidays are approaching, and everyone is starting to think about the New Year. What will the new year bring? What will happen? What will you do? What will you accomplish? A common thing to endure at this time is to think about a New Years’ resolution. A New Years’ resolution is a challenge or promises you make to yourself to accomplish or change for the upcoming year. Some people do not believe in New Year’s resolutions because of the fact they are often broken (a year is a long time!). A resolution should be well thought out and planned so that this doesn’t happen! Below is a list of things you can think about to help make a positive change in your life for the upcoming new year.
Digging Deeper
Health
A lot of people turn to their health when it comes to resolutions. It may be that you want to lose weight or maybe even just make better choices. You can make a goal weight for yourself or a pound amount that you want to lose. You could even say that you want to give up certain types of food or drink. A common one is alcohol consumption. You may say you want to give it up entirely or maybe just limit it to certain days and times. Another big one is smoking. The new year is a good time to quit cold turkey and say goodbye to cigarettes for good! Bad food groups like red meat or non-organic may be a priority to you as well. All of these things can be considered and applied to your New Years’ resolution.
Environment
Besides health, the environment is a big concern for most families. They want to look at how they are living their lives and lower their carbon footprint. Ways to do this can be done by looking at the decisions you make when it comes to the car you drive, how you handle trash in the house, the appliances you use, the things you buy at the grocery store, your home improvements, and even the cleaning products you use in the house can make an effect.
Finances
Another focus area of resolutions is finances. You can make a resolution to control your spending or up your spending or even get a new job to make more money or improve your mindset. Evaluate your spending and find areas that you can improve on. The place to start is your bills. You can call your electric or gas provider, like gas south, to see what you can do about your energy and gas bills. You can even evaluate your cable and phone bills to see if what you are paying for is worth it. Make a plan to pay off your debt like credit card bills or loans. You can even try to plan your spending when it comes to food and entertainment. A common misuse of money is spending it by going out to eat or grabbing a coffee. By cutting those things out you can save a lot of money.
You can use these topics as ideas for when you are starting to think about your New Years’ resolution. It is important to be realistic but also make sure you are choosing one that is impactful. Good luck!
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Ember, Kathi and Pat Miller. Squirrel’s New Year’s Resolution. Albert Whitman & Company, 2017.
The featured image in this article, two early 20th-century New Year’s resolution postcards, is in the public domain in the United States. This applies to U.S. works where the copyright has expired, often because its first publication occurred prior to January 1, 1924, and if not then due to lack of notice or renewal. See this page for further explanation.
