A New Take On Resolutions

By Shaeleigh Schmidt
Blog Content Contributor

As the new year rolls in, people begin to think of things they can change to better themselves or their lives. Whether this change is something small like not drinking soda or something a little larger like unplugging from social media, the vast majority of us decide to make a resolution for the new year.

This is certainly not a new tradition; as a matter of fact, New Year’s resolutions are said to have started some 4,000 years ago with the ancient Babylonians. The resolutions that were made back then were more of a promise to the gods to pay debts, and it was said that if they kept their promises they would be in good graces with the gods which would lead to good fortune. It seems that the point of the resolutions has pretty much stayed the same throughout the course of history: do better and get better results for your life.

It’s great to have an excuse to better our lives, but why only once a year? I don’t know about y’all, but in my life, things are ever changing and I could use a positive change every couple of months, if not even more often. With the start of every new year, I see the people around me come up with a list of things that they want to change; but as the year gets going, it can get hard to keep up with it. According to Kevin Kruse from Forbes magazine, only 8% of people completed their 2016 resolutions.

So we’re probably all in agreement that New Year’s resolutions can be tricky to keep up with. If you get stuck in a routine, you may not even consider another change until an entire year has passed. With that being said, my resolution this year is to not wait an entire year to make appropriate changes in my life. Here’s to 2017, lets make it a year of constant betterment; new day resolutions instead of new year resolutions.

Featured image by Shaeleigh Schmidt