New Year Resolutions are a very old idea indeed. In fact, they go all the way back to 153 BC and a mythical Roman King, Janus. This king had two faces and because he could look forwards and backwards at the same time he became known as the god of gates and doors, beginnings and endings, especially the beginning of important events in a person’s life. This is why he is also the ancient symbol of resolutions, and at the start of each new year Romans would seek forgiveness from their enemies and exchange gifts.
Today resolutions are promises you make to yourself – and others, if you like – that you’ll either stop or start doing something. The resolution can be anything you want, but it’s helpful to keep it realistic so that you at least have some chance of sticking to it. This is important as research shows that most people fail within days of making their resolutions.
What Resolutions Should you Make and What’s the Best Way to Keep Them?
Learning English lends itself well to making resolutions. Choosing well in advance of the New Year will give you time to prepare any resources you need to make your chances of success greater. Here are some suggestions for New Year Resolutions that’ll improve your reading comprehension, listening skills and writing ability that you should be able to stick to easily:
• learn a new word each day to improve your vocabulary
• try to read a magazine or newspaper in English at least once a week
• listen to one hour of English radio each week
• practice your speech for one hour each day
• write a regular journal entry or start a blog
Other Ways to Help Keep Resolutions
Research has shown that there are other things you can do to increase your chances of success. For men it seems it’s best to set specific goals to reach. So, rather than saying ‘I will listen to more spoken English this year’ you should say ‘I will listen to one hour of spoken English every day’. This approach increases the chances of success by 22%.
And, for the ladies, it seems the best way to keep to your resolutions is to tell all your friends and family. Apparently, the motivation that friends and family offer is really useful for keeping you on track and improves your chances of success by 10%.
Give yourself a plan to work through so you can monitor your progress. There’s nothing more motivating than seeing how far you’ve come. This can be something as simple as marking off the days when you successfully complete your task on a calendar. Or, as elaborate as keeping a time diary so you can improve your efficiency and learn more.
So, let us know what New Year Resolutions you plan to make and how long you manage to keep them for.
Good Luck!
