On Trend: New Year's Resolutions

As we all know, the first month of the year brings, almost like clockwork, a new batch of resolutions.

Whether it be to lose weight, cut back on alcohol consumption, or start practicing yoga, New Year resolutions are a great way to challenge and improve yourself and your day-to-day habits.

The only issue is that many people rarely follow through with their resolutions and by mid-January or even February they’ve fallen back into their old ways. According to a 2019 survey, only 7% of respondents kept their resolutions for the entirety of the year.

Obviously there are solutions to maintain your yearly goals like asking a loved one to hold you accountable or practicing a wild amount of self-discipline. Maybe even this article you’re reading will reinforce your New Year resolutions and inspire you to keep them up in 2022. But there’s also an entirely new route you can take to better yourself this year. While many resolutions surround personal habits like exercise, eating, and finances, there are many practices you can begin that affect the overall world and the energy across it that may be easier to sustain than a simple goal to stop getting a Starbucks coffee every day.

Here are three unique resolution ideas to embark on in 2022.

Cut back on online shopping

Do you know how big the online shopping’s carbon footprint is? Well it is absolutely massive. Between the excessive packaging used to ship the purchases to the fuel-guzzling trucks that deliver them, ordering things online is not the best for the environment. If you’re worried about climate change or concerned about your own carbon footprint, reducing the amount you online shop is a great resolution to take up this January. Not to mention how many people online shop at the end of the calendar year due to Cyber Monday and Christmas shopping.

Obviously cutting out online shopping entirely is somewhat unrealistic, which is why your resolution should be to cut back on it, instead of a dogged insistence to shop locally. Also, if you’re a big Amazon user, there’s an option at checkout to have your order come in as few boxes as possible (it just might take an extra day or two). These little things can add up and genuinely make a positive impact on the environment.

Utilize Depop, Poshmark, The Real Real, and thrift stores

This somewhat goes in hand with the first resolution I listed. If we’ve learned anything in 2021, it’s that recycling and reselling clothes is the thing to do and thrift stores are back and better than ever. Utilizing reselling apps such as Depop, Poshmark, and The Real Real is fantastic because it’s a way for you to get rid of and make money on the clothes you don’t wear anymore or a place for you to find pre-owned pieces for your own closet at a discounted price. It’s easy and it’s good for all three parties involved– you, the buyer/seller, and the environment!

Commit to giving one compliment a day.

This one may sound trivial or unimportant but giving at least one compliment a day is a goal that can have profound positive impacts on both you and the person you compliment. Professor Nick Haslam from the University of Melbourne– who did this challenge himself in part of an experiment– explained that “compliments can lift moods, improve engagement with tasks, enhance learning, and increase persistence. Giving compliments is arguably better than receiving them, just as giving gifts to charity has benefits to the giver.”

Complimenting someone– whether it be about their outfit, their work, their smile, or anything in between– is quite an easy thing to do that can majorly improve someone’s day. Moreover, it may inspire them to pay it forward and compliment someone else, creating a chain reaction of positivity and kindness in the world.

Obviously if you still want to make a resolution to tone up or drink more water, all the power to you. But I hope this makes you at least consider what other New Year resolutions you could create that make the world a better place and don’t solely focus on the benefits to self, but also ripple out into the world.