New Year’s Resolutions

Happy New Year! Have you made your New Year’s Resolutions yet? Perhaps you would like to improve your English, travel to a new country or even pass that very important examination you have coming up?

When I was thinking about my New Year Resolutions this year, I started wondering about where the concept actually came from and why we make resolutions in the first place. After some research I discovered that this concept dates all the way back to Babylonians over 4,000 years ago! The idea was to make promises to the gods in the hopes of having a prosperous year. Although slightly different these days, the concept is the same as people make promises to themselves and set goals for the new year.

For a very long time, people have been making New Year’s Resolutions all over the world. It has become part of the norm to create resolutions and share them with friends, family and colleagues. It is actually better to share your resolutions with someone else because then you will have someone to help encourage you to stick to them and to achieve your goals.

According to an article written by Stephanie Gailhard from WUSA9, a US news website, experts have suggested the 5 tips below on keeping your New Year Resolutions:

1. Set specific goals
2. Break them down into per week or per month
3. Reward yourself at each milestone
4. Hold yourself accountable by letting others know all about your resolution
5. Write down your resolution and put it somewhere you can see daily

Having tried number 5 and succeeded, I would encourage anyone to write down their resolutions on a piece of paper and stick it on a wall in their bedroom. That way, they can see the resolutions every day and cross off the ones that have been achieved! It really does work!

Hopefully you will have some goals about improving your English, passing the IELTS exam or even travelling to and living in a new country. No matter how big or small, any New Year’s Resolution can be achieved if you just put your mind to it. Happy 2017!