Hi everyone!

Happy New Year! 🎉

I hope you all had a restful holiday break.

Did you make New Year’s Resolutions?

I used to make my New Year’s Resolutions too overwhelming and took them too seriously, putting too much pressure on myself to be strict on continuing it all year round, leading me to get frustrated and tend not to follow through; I would be dedicated at the beginning, forget by mid-year, and then remember toward the end of the year, in between, I would also add things along the way at the beginning of every week or month, overcomplicating what I want to do and achieve. I think most people are like that, making New Year’s resolutions often the same ones that are long, firm, and unrealistic, causing people not to follow through. So much so that there are commercials at this time of year saying that people usually quit the following days after making resolutions.

We are making them too complicated, stressing ourselves out, and losing sight of the purpose of making resolutions; we need to break them down going back to basics: New Year’s resolutions mean brainstorming goals we intend to achieve and are no different than year-round goal setting, but somehow, we make this great thing with the most impressive expectations; it doesn’t have to be as big or long or rigorous as we think it needs to be-just to be manageable.

That is why my New Year’s Resolutions look different now; they are reminders to keep- paying more attention to my health, saving more money, and reaching out to family more.

I took Psychology of Aging and Aging and the Longevity Economy this semester. Two things I learned from the classes are about regrets and how vital saving money is. In my psychology of aging class, I viewed a TED Talk on the common types of regrets and how the saying ‘Living with no regrets’ misses the point. It’s all about reflecting on our experiences so we can learn and grow from them. In both classes, I learned that saving money is investing in your future’s well-being; saving money is important in providing stability and creating chances for ourselves; we tend to underestimate potential costs and financial worry.

Stress may fuel setting resolutions because it empowers desired change from regrets but is an opportunity for reflection to set goals and create resolutions. Recalling my previous post, I want to write about stress, emphasizing the importance of tackling and befriending it because it is part of an underlying theme in people’s health, and we need to be aware of the manifestations in our lives.

Below is the Ted Talk viewed in the class.

I would like to know your New Year’s Resolution, what you put it in, and why. What does it look like? How do you feel about it, and does it help with your stress?