Make a New Set of Resolutions Now
There’s nothing special about January 1
If you wrote down New Year’s resolutions in January, you might well dread coming across the scrawled list now. We’re almost midway through the year, and for many of us, the last few months have been more about getting by than crushing it.
The truth is, even in normal times, few people stick with their intentions for long. Research from the exercise-tracking app Strava analyzing logged exercise activities found that January 19 is the day people are most likely to quit their resolutions — meaning, under normal circumstances many New Year’s resolutions don’t make it to three weeks.
And these are not normal times. That resolution to hit the gym on the way to the office is tough to pull off if your gym has been closed for months and your office is your bedroom. Writing 500 words a day is harder when you’re also homeschooling your children and working.
It can be tempting to let yourself off the hook until next January, but here’s the thing: You can create a fresh start at any point in the calendar: your birthday, the summer solstice, Tuesday. So why not make a new set of resolutions now? It’s a small thing you can have some control over, and if you stick with them, you might have something to celebrate by January rather than aspire to.
