How to Tackle Your New Year’s Resolution?

We welcome 2019 with the usual chant – New year, new me

It’s time for that New Year’s Resolution. This age-old tradition dates-back to Babylonians entering the new year by promising to their gods that they would return borrowed objects and to pay their debts. Today, it is more concerned with an annual promise to yourself for self-improvement.

However, a terrible hallmark of New Year’s Resolution is its success rate.

A study at Bristol University of 3,000 participants found that almost 88% of those who set a resolution failed. That’s not an encouraging statistic to hear…

What we’ve compiled below are some of the most common goals, where in Manchester you might tackle them, and a few tips on how to achieve them.

Top New Year’s Resolution – Healthier eating, regular exercise, reducing your digital time, reading more, and learning a new skill or hobby. It should be noted that many of these can help you have a positive impact on your mental and physical wellbeing.

Top tips

Be realistic with your goals. Set incremental and attainable goals.
Celebrate successful milestones. Treat yo self.
Plan how you will take action towards your goal and note down your journey in a notebook or spreadsheet. This makes the progress more concrete so you can see how you’ve changed over time.
Develop a support network – seek friends, family or colleagues who wants to achieve a similar goal or may be able to help you with your goal
Make it a habit you like, and not a punishment.

Healthy Eating

Whether that’s cutting down on sugary fizzy drinks, choosing a piece of fruit instead of a cake, or trying the odd vegetarian day. Start with one regular and easy dietary goal. This can also be a great time to start venturing into recipe books and trial out alternatives you might not have thought of before.

Regular Exercise

Pick an activity you like. It might be hiking, dancing, running, swimming, badminton, cycling or whatever it is that clicks with you. It’s easier to stick to this goal, if you genuinely like what you’re doing. Make it a habit, not a punishment.

And having a support network or a friend to exercise with can be a huge driver. Perhaps it’s a hike in the Peak District with your colleague, joining the University of Manchester gym, trying out a new fitness class with a colleague (you’ll find me flailing at Yogalates and Kettlebells) or perhaps coming along on a Tuesday evening with the Run Wild Manchester running society.

More details can be found on – http://www.sport.manchester.ac.uk/

Reducing our digital time

A modern entry to the usual suspects of resolutions. It includes an aim to spend less time on social media, wasting time online, or trying not to look at your phone after 9pm. There are various apps available that can give an indication of what you’re smartphone usage is like, and you can decide for yourself how you plan on tackling that.

Social Fever, MyAddictiometer, Moment.

What might also help with reducing your digital time is finding alternatives to take you away from your phone. As it happens, many of the other resolutions do just that: exercise, reading, and new skills / hobbies!

Reading more

This is a great way to tackle the above resolution of reducing digital time. Personally, I’ve found that a way to read more is finding a friend to lend and borrow books with. This way you recommend things to one another, and talk about what you thought.

I also have a tendency to go to charity shops or Fopp, where I literally judge a book by its cover and pick up what catches my eye and read it. I’ve had a ~70% satisfaction success rate so far. Otherwise, I like to browse the winners of recent book awards in the past decade. Doing so, you’ll soon discover what kind of books and authors you tend to like. This will help with choosing what you want to read.

Oxfam – Whitworth Park, Picadilly Gardens

Barnardo’s – Manchester Picadilly

Fopp – Brown Street

Man Booker Prize, Pulizter Prize, Costa Book Awards (and many others)

Learning a new skill or hobby

A quick search on the internet for what skills and hobbies are out there can lead you down a rabbit hole from learning Spanish to pottery. There are so many things you could try out.

Keep it simple to begin with and focus on one new thing. Maybe it’s something you’ve always thought about but never tried, or something completely new. Maybe it’s a hobby a friend recommended or a skill you want to boost on your CV. Whatever the reason, it’s easier to stick to the new activity, if there’s only one to focus on.

Maybe band together a few other PGR students and visit the SU website to see what society might take your fancy. From hiking to Bhangra dancing, there’s plenty to choose from in our own University. Again, keeping it fun and doing it with a few friends will make it easier to stick to it!

Another avenue is to take up public engagement, science communication or volunteering. These are equally fun opportunities available in Manchester which may be more directly related to promoting your PhD career.

Be kind to yourself

This is by no means an exhaustive list of the different types of resolutions or all the tips to tackle your new year’s resolution. Make it your own.

New Year’s Resolution is a self-promise of improvement. And if you make a mistake, don’t beat yourself up. It’s fine to take a day off from the gym, deciding to order a takeaway one night, or binge an extra episode on Netflix. It’s okay!

Whatever your goal may be. You’re taking that first step, so pat yourself on the back.

By Jason Chu