As reported in Cherwell recently, the Tesco Bank survey showed that only 10% of Britons managed to keep their last New Year’s resolution beyond January. Even fewer make it all the way through the year with their resolution intact. Before coming up to Oxford I had never felt the need to make a New Year’s resolution. This certainly changed after the excessive consumption in my first term as a fresher at Hertford in 2005, and I knew something had to give.
Football and good food were too important to sacrifice and increasing my attendance at the gym seemed to be too much effort, so I decided to give up what is both the student’s best friend and the ultimate nemesis – alcohol. Perhaps I had subconsciously been influenced by the philosopher Bertrand Russell, who once said ‘to be without some of things you want is an indispensable part of happiness.’
To begin with, it was easy to stick to the resolution. When in Hertford bar it was far from difficult avoiding the dubious temptations of the Dark Pango. Formal hall was certainly less enjoyable without regular glasses of red wine, but it was also a great deal cheaper, both on the bank balance and on the liver. As the weeks went on though, social pressures made it increasingly difficult to decline the alcohol with which Oxford is awash. For one thing, it soon became tiresome explaining to people why I was ordering virgin cocktails rather than my usual pint of ale.
So, despite my initial enthusiasm, and the five weeks of effort I had put in, my will-power eventually failed me and during the second bop of Hilary term my New Year’s resolution was no more. I had barely made it beyond January!
If I had nursed any lingering embarrassment about this apparent weakness of will, it would soon have evaporated when I read those findings in the recent Tesco Bank survey. It seems that I am not alone in needing a little bit of support to keep my annual promises.
According to the survey, four in ten of us will make a New Year’s resolution for 2010. Many resolutions will look to improve our health or our finances. If you have already made your resolution, you will almost certainly still be full of the vigour and confidence that mark the early stages. You may have dragged yourself out of bed to the gym first thing in the morning, or you may have declined that second helping of dinner from your overly-generous mother. This is an excellent start and you deserve to feel proud but, once you are back at college, you might find the going slightly tougher. Early morning trips to the gym are much less appealing after an all-nighter, whether of the working hard or playing hard variety!
There are four simple measures you can take to strengthen your commitment to your New Year’s resolution:
1)Restrict yourself to one simple, attainable goal. When January comes around, many people make the common mistake of setting a number of different goals. While each goal might be very worthy, it is hard enough to successfully keep one resolution. Choose the goal you most want to achieve, make it your New Year’s resolution and try to achieve it before moving on to other ambitions.
2)Tell your friends and family. Letting other people know will help when you are with them, as friends can remind you of your New Year’s resolution. While some friends may initially make some jokes and jibes at your expense, if you are determined to see your resolution through most will support you and almost certainly end up admiring you.
3)Make your resolution public. While publishing all manner of personal information in public forums is now the norm because of Facebook, Myspace and Twitter, there is much to be said for letting the world know about your New Year’s resolution. If nothing else, it will make you more reluctant to quit, and deleting the resolution from your profile page or wall will feel like cheating.
4)Use the internet. There are a number of websites out there designed specifically to help you make and keep promises. If you want to put your money where your mouth is, you could try the American website, stickk, which allows you to wager money that you will see your resolution through. If you and a group of friends want to make the same resolution, then pledgebank might be worth a look. Alternatively, if you just want to make your resolution public, tell a few of your friends about it, and receive weekly reminders, then digipromise might be the place for you.
If you are still wavering about making a New Year’s resolution, it might be worth remembering the wise words of the German poet von Goethe, who said, ‘We can always redeem the man who aspires and tries.’ Or if 18th century poetry isn’t your thing, a similar message was conveyed by the former Canadian ice hockey player, Wayne Gretsky, when he said, ‘you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.’
So what was my New Year’s resolution this year? While giving up the gym seemed to be too much effort in 2006, my expanding waistline and reducing stamina suggest that the effort might be worth it after all. Go to DigiPromise to check my progress and make your own New Year’s resolution for 2010.
Good luck!
