Are New Year’s resolutions outdated?

Do leopards change their spots when the clock strikes midnight? Is introducing a new year sufficient reason to adopt a brand new mindset?

It could be. It’s too early in the year for my cynical side to unleash itself, give me a week or two.

It’s also the prime time of year for companies to flog their products – whether that be weight loss regimes or divorce lawyers lapping up your festive squabbles over how you terrorised the innocent turkey in front of the in laws.

Often, the new year continues like a relay race. You carry the baton from last year. Sure, you can throw away the baton and start afresh, but how frequently does that have a positive, realistic outcome? Responsibilities, like the day in day out hustle and bustle to continue keeping necessities, life and the runnings of your life in working order are an important structure before making fundamental alterations to the foundations you rely on. For example: would you remove a structural wall knowing all your hard work could tumble down? Without scaffolding as a supportive measure, you’re rolling the dice purely on the basis that it’s 2024.

Commonly, the purpose of ‘New Year’s resolutions’ is to highlight the insecurities and lags in one’s life or self which in turn encourages consumers to release money then benefitting the markets, further lining the governments pockets for the next tax year.

Now that’s not saying you won’t get a return on your new years goals and hopes; resulting in higher expenditure surrounding your latest ventures. But it’s vital to research and not make drastic changes to your life purely on the basis of the happy new year gimmick.

As many times, it can reinforce insecurities that may have stemmed from superficial material offerings such has influential media which are marketed with a desired outcome, sometimes unconscious to you and I until we act proceeding to us changing our usual behaviours; affecting you either positively or negatively, many times financially worse off.

What’s so wrong with us entering the new year with an impartial, cautious, mindful and peaceful attitude. After all, unsettling our common routines is what can disrupt our judgement creating doubt or discomfort possibly even slight paranoia; honing in on how we may decipher the manner of which our lives are perceived not only by ourselves but also onlookers. We end up attempting to correct issues that many times weren’t of significant importance or simply do not exist; instead striving for a new portrayal of perfection then wonder why we suffer from premature burn out before January is over. There’s a fine line between reality and fiction, what side of the fence do new years resolutions belong to?

After all, give yourself time you come down from your mulled wine high! You have 356 + days and counting to figure it out. Every year is your year! Follow your dreams but don’t let a date narrate the rest of your life. After all, what’s so bad about June or July? You can make changes to your life at any moment.

What do you think? Do you believe in New Year’s resolutions or think they’re overrated? Have they worked for you? Comment below!