Why I Ditched New Year’s Resolutions for a New Year’s Theme

Ivan Samkov via Pexels

With the new year come New Year’s resolutions. Many people will resolve to be more fit or to exercise more, and the annual January gym rush will see a spike in gym memberships as people strive to fulfill their resolutions. But often these resolutions are soon broken, leaving people feeling disappointed in themselves.

Over the years, however, there has been a pivot away from New Year’s resolutions. Having a theme for the new year is becoming more mainstream. In a nutshell, New Year’s themes are focused on process rather than on achievement, and are therefore easier to adhere to.

For the past couple years, I decided my theme for the new year was going to be fitness and health. I have had COVID twice, plus a neck injury from years back that causes me chronic pain and frequent headaches. Staying active can be very difficult for me some days. And a New Year’s resolution wasn’t going to change that.

But a theme? Well, that’s more manageable for me.

Instead of focusing on the goal of fitness, I decided to focus on the process of recovery. Putting my health first meant listening to my body and honoring its needs. It meant physical therapy for my neck injury. It meant purposeful rest for lingering COVID symptoms. It meant pushing myself to seek out active workouts that I enjoy, like fitness classes and boxing. But it also meant knowing my limits. I have a tendency to push myself too hard. So the theme of “health” helps to remind me that I can go easy on myself when needed. If I overexert myself, that’s going to lead to a setback in my recovery. Fitness cannot come at the expense of my health. They must go hand in hand. I want to get stronger, build more stamina, and have more energy. How I pursue that can change day to day, week to week.

Building healthy habits is one of the main ways I adhere to my theme. Keeping up with my physical therapy exercises, making it to boxing class when my injury allows, even choosing foods that are more healthful—these are all habits that fall under the umbrella of my theme for the new year. They will look different for different people. For some, building healthy habits might mean walking or jogging every morning or evening, and for others it might mean limiting screen time or going to bed before a certain time. It might mean yoga, meditation, or something else entirely. Perhaps it is a gym membership. That’s great! If that works for you, that’s all that should matter.

Yes, adhering to themes will still take practice and discipline, but themes have grace built into their nature where resolutions typically do not. I find reframing my goals as “themes” has helped me to stay on track better than a New Year’s resolution ever did. Instead of the pass/fail nature of resolutions, themes feature movable goal posts. You get to decide what your theme looks like. I have found that focusing on my progress is more rewarding than trying to achieve a set goal.

I am healthier and stronger than I was at this time last year. And hopefully that’ll be as true this time next year as it is today.