New Year’s Resolutions can purportedly be traced back to ancient times, from Romans making promises to the god Janus to medieval English knights making a post-Christmas commitment to chivalry.
But has this ancient custom now run its course?
Have people changed their focus to make smaller but more enduring steps towards better mental and physical health? To carry out every day acts of kindness rather than an annual statement of intent to be a better person? And perhaps adopting a more all-encompassing attitude towards sustainability and environmental considerations?
In 2016, a study of 2,000 Brits, carried out by Bupa found that of the people who said they would be setting a New Year’s Resolution for 2017, half were not confident they would stick to it.
Why would you put that additional bit of pressure on yourself, when even before you have started, you have already decided that you will fail?
A poll conducted by YouGov in December last year revealed that only 21 per cent of Brits planned to make New Year’s Resolutions for 2018.
This, is perhaps quite a surprisingly low number until the same poll also revealed that just 27% of those that made resolutions in 2017 were likely to see them through to the end of the year.
And, last week, a study undertaken by activity tracking and social network Strava, showed that Friday, January 12 2018, was the day when people were most likely to give up on this year’s resolutions.
But, for those with active resolutions, Strava also revealed some strategies to help people succeed, based on its Strava Year in Sport 2017 insight citing that exercising with friends could increase your levels of activities by 22 per cent and joining a sporting club could lead to a 46 per cent increase in activities.
Last year, the team all set New Year Resolutions, and to a person, none of us achieved what at that point in time was evidently something of great importance to us.
But during the year, we all did things that made us feel proud as individuals and of each other, some challenges were overcome and some personal shifts in lifestyle made, and we’re happy with that.
So, no over-arching resolutions for us this year, but an ingrained sense of being the best us we can, however that relates to us as individuals.
In keeping with the popularity of mantras, slogans and tweets prolific across social platforms, we have gathered some of our favourites below which will guide us over the coming year.
“If we did all the things we are capable of, we would literally astound ourselves” Thomas Edison
“Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass; it’s about learning to dance in the rain”
“The beauty of you is not where you are perfect. It’s where you are fearless” Cleo Wade
“Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence” Vince Lombardi
“Nothing is impossible, the word itself says “I’m possible”!” Audrey Hepburn
“Don’t compare your life to others. There’s no comparison between the sun and the moon, they shine when it’s their time”
“Being happy never goes out of style” Lilly Pulitzer
Our consumer lifestyle PR team specialise in connecting everyday brands with everyday people across four core sectors; Consumer Lifestyle PR, Food & Drink PR, Consumer Technology PR and Sport, Health & Wellbeing PR. More information on these areas of knowledge can be found at www.escapadepr.com/about-us.
