The Psychology Behind New Year’s Resolutions

Around New Years we often hear the saying “new year, new me.” People create resolutions usually to try and better themselves, but they usually set themselves up to fail. People usually want to try and eat healthier, lose weight, or try harder at work or school. Physiologically we need time to reflect on ourselves. People think that if you are ready to change, you will. But others don’t agree. New Years is usually a day to reflect, and most people make unreachable goals, and they usually get disappointed.

Changing who you are will take a lot more than just saying you are going to change. Mentally, it is hard to change your beliefs and how you treat other people. It takes more than just telling yourself to be a better person. You have to evaluate the person you are now and focus on changing the things that you could make better. You need to be realistic; if you are going to make resolutions you need to be practical and real with yourself if you want them to be met. If you are suffering from addiction like drinking, for example, you shouldn’t try to not drink at all instead start off trying to only drink every other day or a couple of times a week until you get to the point where you don’t need to drink at all. Also, try and break it up into parts so it will be more manageable and overall more achievable.

The easiest route to failure is to make too many resolutions. If you want to do something, start doing it one step at a time. Don’t do everything at once, try one thing and stick with it until you met your goal. Many people put too high of an expectation on what they can do, and they usually get disappointed. Letting family and friends know about your resolution may also help you. It can make it so other people help you reach or goal and also support you and your goals. It is also hard to change your ways if someone important in your life isn’t trying to better themselves also. 

Many people think that if they want to change then they will. And those people often don’t reach their goals. This is because there is more to changing then just telling yourself that you want to change. You have to figure out ways you can change, talk to people for help, make thought out steps to make it so you can change.

Something you should also think about is, are New Year resolutions needed? Should people even do them? Honestly, it sets you up to be disappointed in yourself for not being who you want to be and not achieving what you want to. Everyone should also be trying to better themselves every day of every year. Having the mindset to always be your best self and always trying to change is a better mindset than trying to make yourself change because it is a new year. But if we are being real, people often don’t look after themselves. And that is why a lot of people aren’t the people they want to be and feel a need to change constantly. 

Overall, there are a lot of reasons why people use the saying “new year, new me.” And yes, it is good to try and better yourself, but there is a lot that goes into trying to change that many people don’t think about when they first make their new year’s resolutions.