New Year Resolutions are the year-end competitions where everyone on the planet competes for coming up with the most ambitious and exotic goals for the upcoming year. When our host planet earth is rotating around the sun 365 days, what is new about the new year? Why should we have new year resolutions and not new day ones is a question some people ask. While the population in the world celebrates their “New Year” on different days of the year, one common theme is celebration of the Gregorian New Year worldwide. Because of this shared enthusiasm, isn’t it just easier to feel the sense of camaraderie and aim for new beginnings with everyone else in the world?

Just the thought of millions (if not the entire 8 billion) humans aiming to change their life is motivating enough to set new year resolutions. What are they going to be this year? How can we make them different so that we stick to them? Can we make them easy and effortless? Is that even possible? Think of the over-ambitious goals everyone aims for (weight-loss, career changes, significant moves, improving health).

How about we think of the feelings that we want to feel this year instead? What if we aim for feeling satisfied every time we eat something nourishing? Can we have the same feeling after exercising? Will we feel happy if we spend time outdoors? Will it calm us down? Will it improve our life, our mental health? Spending time with our loved ones can also help improve how we feel. Gratitude for everything that we have in life, all the opportunities, all of the support that we have can set the tone for much bigger things in our lives.

Thinking about all the New Year Resolutions that we have set (ourselves for failure) every single year, just makes us wonder whether we should even bother. Why not do it differently this time and focus on one day at a time, one step at a time, one habit at a time? Are we better today than we were last year? Hindsight, they say is 20/20. Rather than competing with each other and coming up with unrealistic goals and resolution, let us aim to be better than our own versions in the past year.  

Will we be better next year than we are this year? This should be the goal to really help us move in the right direction. Planning, visualizing and bringing the goals in small, actionable steps can bring the New year resolutions to life in no time. Let us do it in a way where we actually enjoy this change. After all, it is not the destination that matters, it is the journey. Let us make it as memorable as we can.

Wish you all a very happy, healthy and prosperous new year!

–Team Microbiome Superhero