By Evelyne Kerubo

The festive season has ended and each and every person is trying to see what the New Year has in store for them. At this time, many individuals try and come up with a list of resolutions that are in line with what they want to achieve.

The new year’s resolutions can range from finances, health, relationships, academic and even career, as this list can be endless. In trying to come up with the resolutions, past life experiences might have an influence on the current resolution decisions. One such example is when a person has body image issues, and this affects their self-esteem.

Consequently, when coming up with new year’s resolutions, the person can make unrealistic goals such as loosing tremendous amounts of weight. In such a situation, failing to meet the target body goals and weight loss can lead to negative feelings being experienced.

By the time the New Year begins we all have an idea about a ruminating issue that has been present in our minds, and this is where the start of the resolutions usually comes about. The resolution can be unrealistic at times, and this pushes the individuals to go hard on themselves thus creating a situation for stress to develop.

Research has shown that only 8 percent of individuals are often successful at fulfilling the resolutions that they make. In turn, this leaves one to wonder about the mental health of those who are not successful, and with specific regards to the psychological issues they have to go through. The top reasons that have been found to make people not achieve their resolutions include having resolutions that cannot be measured, no presence of accountability, and doing nothing towards achievement.

The key question that then comes about is ‘how do I achieve the goals that I have set for 2022?’. It is possible to achieve the new year’s resolutions by following some of these provided key steps:

First, the resolutions should be referred to as goals as this becomes easy to achieve since they are specific. Secondly, it is important to be reasonable as this means that there is a possibility of success and or failure. Thirdly, create a suitable timeline and work on each specific goal at a time and this will bring about more optimal success.

While this is taking place, one should monitor the progress that has been made. One specific way of doing this is to journal since this provides an emotional outlet both negative and positive. At the same time, it is also important to practice gratitude, create lasting friendships, take time off for self-improvement, practicing mindfulness and just live life despite the global pandemic.
In the long run, do not beat yourself down as you need to have your mental health to be intact to deal with the other issues present in day to day life.

Happy New Year, and ensure to put your mental health first at all times.