"New year, new me!" cried the millions of college students across the globe, hoping to finally start hitting the gym more, to study harder, or to make new friends. We'll set aside that there's really nothing special about the New Year when it comes to making a change (why do we have to wait until the coldest months of every year to start improving ourselves?) and give you some New Year's resolutions that you can focus on this year.
But we should get some problems with New Year's resolutions out of the way. First of all, people often set goals too high from the outset and then beat themselves up when they can't hold themselves to it. If you've never been good about going to the gym every day, why would that suddenly change now? Give yourself smaller, more achievable goals-do some low-pressure but consistent exercise in your own home to start, or maybe commit to going to the gym once a week. The hardest part of every major life change is sticking to it, but the second hardest is starting it. Give yourself some grace for stumbling over both hurdles, and you might find you're better at sticking to it than you could have imagined.
Second of all, it's time to stop with all the negative New Year's resolutions! You're resolutions should be things you want to start doing, not things you want to stop doing. It's not about losing weight, it's about being more active and eating a more balanced diet. It's not about partying less, it's about learning to value time to yourself and cherishing time spent with people close to you. It's not about spending less time on social media, it's about spending more time reading, in nature, or with friends. Now, not all popular resolutions are negative, but it's important to scrub that negative thinking so that all of your goals push you forward rather than just invite pointless self-criticism.
Now that we've got that out of the way, let's move on to some resolutions that you might find productive in the New Year.
The List
READ MORE BOOKS
In the era of endless TikTok doom-scrolling, Netflix, YouTube, and quickly gratifying social media, it's easy to feel like we're neglecting more contemplative and patient activities like reading. Whether you want to read fiction, non-fiction, or a combination of both, it's always a good idea to include more books in your diet, and with the wide availability of eBooks and audiobooks, it's never been easier to access books.
This is a good resolution for people who haven't touched a book since their high school English classes as well as already voracious readers who just want to carve out more time for it, but how you approach this resolution is going to depend on what and how much you read right now. If you can't remember the last time you read a book cover to cover, start with something easy, short, and appealing to your interests-maybe a short biography of a famous person you admire or a book series you never made time to read when you were a kid. If you're a heavy reader but only of certain kinds of books, try branching out.
EXERCISE MORE
This could mean going to the gym more, but hitting the weights and treadmills doesn't work for everyone. If you love nature, then go on more hikes or go on long walks and runs through nature. If you're not as interested in building muscle and instead just want to improve your general physical health and stamina, you might focus on various forms of aerobic exercise, much of which you can do with little to no equipment.
If you're a newbie to working out, consider setting yourself small, achievable goals that can push you to move forward. Go to the gym every Saturday for a while, but give yourself a break for the rest of the week. Rome wasn't built in a day, as the saying goes, and it's better for you to build up consistent routines than it is for you to exercise like crazy for a week and then stop going altogether. And if you're already a gym rat, try setting some more specific goals, like improving your mile time or your deadlift personal bests.
SAY "YES" MORE or SAY "NO" MORE
These are great all-purpose resolutions that can apply to any area of life you want and are especially powerful for new college students. If you're deciding to say yes more, it could mean saying yes to hanging out with some new friends you don't quite know yet but feel a little nervous about seeing, or it could mean saying yes when someone asks you to join a club you're not sure about, or it could even mean saying yes to helping someone out when they need it, whether that's in class or with something personal.
If you feel like you need to take some control and say no to more things, that could mean anything from saying no to taking tons of classes that might stress you out or saying no to your family when they expect you to study pre-med instead of music. It could even simply be saying no to joining a fraternity or sorority when you feel pressured to join even if you don't feel like it's the right place for you.
Only you know what you really need, and if you feel like you've missed out on a lot of opportunities, fun times, or great friendships because you said "no" too much, then maybe it's time to embrace some more positivity. If you're always overextended or often find yourself at parties you never really wanted to go to, then maybe it's time to exercise the power of "no." We railed against negative resolutions, but you could think of the "no" more as a positive assertion to spend your time and energy on things that really matter to you rather than other peoples' expectations.
GO VEGETARIAN or VEGAN
This is a tall order, and the world is full of ex-vegetarians who couldn't commit to the lifestyle full-time, but that's okay! If you're a regular meat-eater, cutting meat completely out of your diet all at once is super hard. Suddenly, you can't have many of your favorite foods, group dinners can become more difficult, and all of your favorite recipes are now a lot more difficult to cook.
If you feel like you can commit to going vegetarian or vegan all in one go, then, by all means, do it, but if you're on the fence, here's a pretty good solution: think about all the different kinds of meat or animal products that you like, and try to think of the one or two that you can't live without. Maybe it's bacon, maybe it's chicken, maybe it's cheddar cheese, or maybe it's cheeseburgers. Once you've picked them, give up the rest. You'll still get to eat some of your favorites, but you'll still be cutting a lot of meat out of your diet, which is definitely a step toward vegetarianism. Gradually, you can eat fewer and fewer of those last hold-outs until you get to the meatless diet you were shooting for.
Conclusions
College is all about finding yourself, so experiment with all kinds of New Year's resolutions to see what brings you the most joy. It's going to differ for everyone, and that's the best part! And hey, if you're still in high school and your New Year's resolution is to pick the best college for you, we can help you with that at College Rover. Whatever you need most in a college, we'll help you find out where is best for you by letting you compare all of your top choices on only the metrics that matter to you. Happy New Year, and happy searching!
