Holly Downes
It has become that time again – the time of looking back on the rather mentally and physically challenging year of 2021. The year plagued with countless coronavirus variants, cancelled events and infinite disruptions to our daily routines. 2021 was birthed in a bitter lockdown and is dying around more restrictions.
Yet, I am a firm believer that everything happens for a reason. Many people have found themselves this year. Have achieved things they never thought they could’ve. Have surprised themselves. However, no one is perfect – everyone has a bad habit, a personality flaw, something that causes others to internally grimace at. So as tradition follows, we grab our pen and paper, or in this digital world, our notes app, and write a long list of self-improvement goals for the twelve months of opportunity 2022 has to offer.
After indulging in too many mince pies, the whole box of Lindor’s, and enough cheese to feed a small village, the Christmas festivities are sadly temporary. We realize that this utopia cannot prolong into the new year, so we make a resolution to give up chocolate for the month. To go on a brisk walk every morning. To stop procrastinating when we have mountains of reading. The ending of Christmas celebrations comes with a dread of the new year that forces us to confront the reality of life – one which does not allow us to watch Christmas movies all day.
So, we prepare to deep clean our routines. We craft a narrative for 2022 – to stop over-consuming and buying the whole of Zara’s new-in section, to stop spending 20 hours on the PS5, to stop using Tesco Clubcard price as an excuse to buy cake. We become the admirable characters in our own stories as we create the perfect fictional tale for the new year. A year where we become the person everyone idealises – that person who wakes up before sunrise to mediate, prioritises healthy eating and never fails to miss an essay deadline.
Yet, as we all know, fiction never becomes a reality. Whilst the first week of January may be comprised of efforts to blur the boundaries between fiction and reality, trying to become the idealized version of yourself, the January blues soon roll around. You try and do that twenty-minute workout every day, resist the urge to eat the entire tube of Pringles and not grab your phone every ten seconds, but all these little resolutions slowly dissolve away. You begin to become your 2021 self – the ‘old you’ you tried to lock away in the past.
And this yearly cycle is inevitable. Making unrealistic resolutions that never make it past the second week of January, agreeing to improve yourself and remove past habits to only fall back headfirst into them. Being driven to become the perfect person only ends in disappointment when this goal is unattainable. It has become easier to break than create resolutions – no one is there to scold us for neglecting them, they are our own creations, so we are automatically granted the permission to let them slip away.
Self-improvement will always be fundamental in society. To ‘better ourselves’, to become the person everyone wants to be. We are programmed to think we are not enough, that there is always something to improve upon – to change. Whilst self-improvement is key to maturing, to realising your faults and becoming the best version of yourself, it gets dangerous when unrealistic ideals flood your mindset. To be more positive, active, and happier than last year – ideals that when temporarily broken, create inevitable feelings of failure and disappointment.
Yet, these feelings can be easily avoided by simply changing your mindset when sitting down to write your New Year’s resolutions. Do not enter 2022 with the intention of transforming into a whole new person – a new year does not equate to a new person, but an individual who is eager to learn and change for the better. An individual who perseveres and has willpower to reach their realistic personal goals.
With this mindset, New Year’s resolutions are not futile, but are an important opportunity to reflect on the past year’s faults and victories – to make use of the clean slate 2022 so generously provides.
