The best New Year’s resolutions

Will you make some of the best New Year’s resolutions this year or have you already given up on it as they will surely get forgotten through the year just like last year and the year before? If the second option is your case, then you are not alone.  Many people don’t even try to set goals for the new year as they know how challenging it is to stick to them.

According to Telegraph, the best New Year’s resolutions in 2017 were to:

• Exercise more
• Lose weight
• Eat more healthily
• Take a more active approach to health
• Learn new skill or hobby
• Spend more time on personal wellbeing
• Spend more time with family and friends
• Drink less alcohol
• Stop smoking

Until the middle of January it normally goes well, but then something happens; approximately 80% of resolutions fail by the second week of February. Why is it so difficult to achieve our best New Year’s resolutions? Do we lack willpower or are we just lazy?

Apparently, the answer is that most of us set unrealistic goals and expectations when it comes to resolutions.  Many people think that the start of the New Year is the perfect time to turn a new page in their life, to try to reinvent themselves.

If you take a look at the list above, it is obvious that to accomplish these goals it is necessary to make changes in lifestyle or in habits, which is a very long process and being that piece of cake that you’re trying to cut out.

We – human beings – tend to stick to already known patterns and behaviours. Promising yourself that you will make positive changes in your life but then never doing it can badly damage one`s self-esteem.

So how can we turn the lack of success in previous years around and achieve our goals in 2018?

There are small pieces of advice that you can take, such as focusing on one of the best New Year’s resolution, rather several, or setting very specific goals (to learn a language doesn’t work, but learning French and reaching level A1 in 6 months would). Another useful tip is to have an accountability buddy, someone close to you that you have to report to.

But the advice we can give you is to choose one of the best New Year’s resolution that you find very exciting, then it is enjoyable to make efforts to accomplish it. And what could be more exciting than moving to another country, exploring its culture, meeting new people, and gaining international work experience?

Changing things that have a huge impact on the everyday life, such as your job or the city you live in, generates a new daily routine, leads to fresh impulses, and creates the perfect environment for you to reinvent yourself. Living in a new country, you have to recreate your everyday life from zero, so it is up to you what kind of activities you take up or leave out. So, if besides traveling, you have other things on your best New Year’s resolutions list, then achieving the other points will surely be easier in a new environment.

Of course, the decision of moving to another country shouldn’t be merely based on your desire to change your life and habits, but it can be an adventurous start to finally making your best New Year’s resolutions happen. So, if you always wanted to give it a try, then go ahead.

It’s time to make 2018 the year when you finally start your adventures abroad!