For the past 10 years, Alex Boughen has been making big, determined New Year’s resolutions. “It was always eating healthier, exercising more, that sort of thing,” he said.
The problem was that he could never keep them. “I was one of those people who went to the gym on January 2,” says 28-year-old Mr. Boughen, who works for a communications agency in Ontario. A few weeks later, he said, “They never saw my face again.”
Sometime this summer it dawned on him that he could do things differently. Instead of waiting until the first day of the new year to revise his habits, he would try to make small and incremental changes. If he missed a run one morning, he would go for a walk after dinner instead. He would try to eat a few meals at home where he could check the ingredients and make sure they were healthy.
Most importantly, screwing up one day didn’t mean giving up completely. “If I don’t hit a target one day, I’ll just try again the next day,” he said. “It’s a much better strategy than waiting until the new year to try again.”
The new year is almost here, and with it countless good intentions. But some millennials and Gen Zers are abandoning tradition and opting instead to work on themselves all year round or when they realize they need to change. If they really want to do it differently, they think, why wait until January 1st?
Mr Boughen pointed out that the reason many people fail to achieve their goals is because they procrastinate. “Many of us find that we always put things off,” he said. “I always say I start on Monday, or I start in the new year. That was toxic to me.”
Noah Schnable, 20, a student at Southern New Hampshire University, also found himself pushing his goals of becoming a well-known game streamer. “To do what I want, I have to stream for at least three or four hours a day,” he said. “But I definitely have a procrastination problem where I put everything off until the next day.”
He thought about making a New Year’s resolution, but finally decided that the only way to achieve his goals was to start immediately. “Now when I find myself streaming tomorrow or a little later in the week, I say to myself, ‘Actually, now you have time to do it,'” he said.
Another benefit of this strategy is that he will feel much more confident going into 2022 knowing that he has already made progress on his dreams. “By New Years I will hopefully have a very good feeling that I have already started working on my goals,” he said. “It feels good to know I’m already on my way.”
Other young people are realistic about what they need to make lasting change — and it’s not a trendy New Year’s resolution.
Abbey Phaneuf, 22, who lives in New York and is a marketing associate at Loftie, a company that makes consumer goods that help you sleep better, said she feels pressure every year to find a solution.
“I get a lot of TikToks about workout routines, and how you can change your body in a month, and what you should be eating,” she said. “I think people see other people trying to be the best version of themselves, and they feel like they should be doing the same.”
But she knows that to really change her life, she has to want to go deep inside; it can’t just be something she does because of groupthink. “Going to the gym just because of something you’ve seen on TikTok isn’t sustainable.”
She skips the entire resolution this year. Instead, she focuses on gradually making the change she wants – participating in more activities in New York City. “I’ve been looking up stuff for a while – running clubs and volunteering,” she said. “It’s an ongoing goal of mine, and I’m going to do it when I’m ready.”
Emily Mooshian, 27, a proofreader in Haverhill, Massachusetts, also used to feel pressured to announce a resolution on New Year’s Day. “I’ve always thought of a New Year’s resolution as something I should do because everyone else is doing it,” she said. “But I also think this is stupid. I won’t last if I do it because everyone else does.”
Therefore, this year she decided to work on herself on her own schedule.
In October, she started feeling burned out for doing too many favors for people. She helped plan birthday parties for friends and went on trips where she really didn’t want to go. “I decided I would make a New Year’s resolution to say ‘no’ more often and take care of my mental health,” she said. And she was determined not to wait until the first day of 2022 to get started.
So far, she’s already turned down a trip to Nashville over the holidays and said no to a friend who wanted her to sit on the dog. “If I had waited until January to start working on my resolution, I would have said yes to these things and be exhausted,” she said. “Now I feel rather good.”
Like Ms. Mooshian, other people care so much about their resolutions that they can’t wait.
Jarrett Adlof, 34, a pop punk musician in Dallas, has felt so much negativity in the world this year. “We’ve all had such a horrible two years,” he wrote in an email. “I need more positivity going into 2022. I can’t let the last few weeks beat me along the way.”
That’s why he decided to start his plan – to mute social media accounts that mainly post negative thoughts – in mid-December, instead of waiting until the new year.
“I’ve muted a few, and that’s a start,” he said. “I feel wonderful.”