my take on new year’s resolutions

welcome to introspection ft. harsehaj! ⭐️ i’m harsehaj, an 18 y/o always up to something in social good x tech.

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onto today’s topic: my take on new year’s resolutions 🎆 

i believe new year’s resolutions can be both negative and positive.

the negative 👎️ 
new year’s resolutions are often used an excuse to procrastinate achieving a new goal. rather than starting a new workout plan or project in the next week, a lot of us default to saying “next year is going to be my year for this.” why not right now? our world doesn’t change much when the year increases by 1. 🌎️ it actually is pretty much the same, so there are no additional resources suddenly granted to you to achieve your goals because of the fact that it’s the new year.

you risk oversaturation if you save your goals and ambitions for the next year. if you’re saving a cool startup idea or project for a “fresh start,” you’re wasting precious time for progress and risking a surge in similar, and possibly the same exact, ideas popping up elsewhere.

the motivation behind “for the new year” isn’t strong enough to see a resolution through to the end. ⚡️ the concept of new years resolutions is a forcing function to just think of a few goals that sound good, without being intentional about what someone actually wants to achieve. as a result, these goals end up being very generic and often times aren’t checked off by the end of the year because they didn’t fit a person’s lifestyle or true ambitions.

the positive 👍️ 
since everyone tends to set new year’s resolutions, it gives you a built-in accountability system (at least for a few weeks) to stick to your goals. this accountability system can help form habits that will turn into self-discipline to stay focused on the finish line. 🏃‍♂️ 

if you’re not one to set goals often, this time of year and the practice of forming resolutions is a good introduction to living life with more direction and focus. goal-setting is an important skill to be implemented in all aspects of life, and getting this taste of it is very helpful for many.

i personally do set new year’s resolutions and goals. to mitigate some of the negatives i’ve mentioned, i start writing out my resolutions well before new years day so that i really take the time to reflect on what exactly i want to achieve in the next year. 💭 

i’m currently experimenting with different frameworks for my new years resolutions to ensure i stay laser-focused on them for 2024. stay tuned for that on new year’s day. :)

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