Happy 2012!
Are you one of the many people across the globe who has just set a New Year’s resolution? What do you want to achieve this year & how are you tracking so far?
Check out TIME’s top 10 list of resolutions that most often fall by the wayside. If your resolution is on the list, we urge you to prove this article wrong!
LOSE WEIGHT & GET FIT
After a season of way too much pudding, candy canes & holiday parties, it’s only natural that a vow to lose weight and get fit would follow. Each January, fitness clubs offer deals and promotions to those who want to make good on their resolutions. To the gym junkies who have been slogging away for the previous 11 months of the year – never fear – treadmill lines & over-crowded classes should ease by mid-February.
QUIT SMOKING
So you want to quit smoking? Good luck. Only an estimated 15% of people who try to quit manage to stay cigarette-free six months later. True, there are a host of products to help wean you off your nicotine addiction — patches, chewing gum, “e-cigarettes”… Regardless – smokers, you have your work cut out for you.
LEARN SOMETHING NEW
You’ve been meaning to learn French. You’d love to play the piano. How great would it be to really know how to cook? Resolving to learn something new is exciting. At least, for a while. But there might be a reason you haven’t learned all this yet. French is too hard to pronounce. Piano takes too much practice. Ordering out is just so much easier than cooking. Isn’t it?
EAT HEALTHIER & DIET
2012 will be different. It’s time to eat healthily. We promise to swap a fried breakfast for cereal & fruit; eat lean, protein-rich salads (nonfat dressing on the side, please) for lunch; cook fish and salad for dinner. It all sounds so good and possible on Jan. 2. The problem is that most people take this resolution too far by forcing themselves onto restricting diets they can’t possibly keep. Eat healthier in moderation & allow yourself a treat now and then. Otherwise, it won’t be long before this resolution falls by the weight-side.
GET OUT OF DEBT & SAVE MONEY
The sad fact about this resolution is that many people will have difficulty accomplishing it, and not through any fault of their own, but rather the GFC. Financial planners advise making budget-friendly rules, rather than unattainable goals. For example – only allow yourself to eat one dinner out a week. Take a packed lunch to work. You get the drift.
SPEND MORE TIME WITH THE FAMILY
Everyone’s busy these days, it’s true. But blood is thicker than water, and the beginning of the year is an ideal time to reconnect with family that you haven’t seen in a while. Great idea, right? Then February arrives, reality sets in, and you realise that the reason you didn’t see cousin Jim more often is because he really isn’t that interesting at all. Or that plan to spend more time with the kids? Well, it turns out that work doesn’t magically disappear with the dawning of a new year, and you’re at the office more than ever. It’s a hard promise to keep — no matter how sincere the desire.
TRAVEL TO NEW PLACES
A new year and a new world of opportunities to explore — and places, too. Travel of some sort is on almost everyone’s agenda, and some of the first things we tend to think of in a new year are those exotic destinations we’d hope to seek out. But in the aftermath of the GFC, budgets are tight and stay-cations are in. Besides, not traveling spares all the headache of planning, getting someone to tend to your plants, collect your mail, look after your puppy….There’s a reason why travel and travail sound so similar.
BE LESS STRESSED
Less stress can make you healthier and happier, so in the coming year you’ll light soothing candles and take more bubble baths. Unfortunately, stressing less is likely to be the very first resolution you’ll break. On Jan. 1, your train of thought may very well have gone something like this: Wow, it’s 2012. Yikes, it’s 2012! How did it get to be 2012 already? Where did the past year ago? Where have the past 10 years gone? What am I doing with my life?! Time to take a bubble bath…
VOLUNTEER
You could help build a house, care for an animal, distribute food to the hungry, tutor a student. Volunteering could be the resolution that keeps on giving — to yourself and to others. But finding the time all too often proves harder than finding money, and many would-be volunteers will probably end up writing cheques instead. You might want to broaden this resolution to “help others.”
DRINK LESS
After the morning of Jan. 1, it’s not surprising you probably wish you drank less. The question is whether that resolve will last for the other 364 days of the year. Drinking less is undoubtedly good for you: it’s better for your health, your wallet and probably your reputation. Then why do we keep on boozing? Folk more learned than we may point to modern science for definitive answers, but we prefer those Greco-Roman ancients who proclaimed “In vino veritas” — “In wine [and whiskey, vodka, gin and beer], there is truth.” They said it, not us.
And on that note – good luck with your New Year’s Resolution!
CLICK HERE to let us know your 2012 resolution & your top tip for keeping that goal.
SOURCE: www.time.com