Premier Apartment Finding Blog
According to USA.gov, the top New Year’s Resolutions are:
Drink Less Alcohol
Eat Healthy Food
Get a Better Education
Get a Better Job
Get Fit
Lose Weight
Manage Debt
Manage Stress
Quit Smoking
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
Save Money
Take a Trip
Volunteer to Help Others
Here are some ideas that you might find helpful as you work on your resolutions:
Drink Less Alcohol, Quit Smoking
There are several great programs and sites that specialize in helping people break addictions and control habits. I will forego any advice-giving here and suggest you find what works best for you through a Google Search.
Eat Healthy Food
SkinnyTaste.com provides a ton of healthy and delicious recipes. I have family members who get all their recipes from this site and they absolutely love it.
Get a Better Education
Did you know that MIT offers 2000 online courses for free? And they aren’t the only ones. You could also try other popular tutorial and educational sites like Khan Academy, particularly if you need help with math or science. Another approach to this goal is to rethink how your current educational pursuits are going. If you aren’t quite giving your best efforts in class, now might be a good time to change. I won’t elaborate much into this. Most of what I’d like to say is found in a previous blog post about getting ready for college.
Get a Better Job
Seeking employment in a tough economy can be very intimidating. You’ll want to make sure you are prepared for it. Be presentable and professional in your appearance. Update your resume. There are online tools to help you with that. Keep your LinkedIn profile active and up-to-date. Potential employers are very effective social media stalkers. If you have finished school, continue educating yourself in your field and any other potential fields in which you might gain employment. You’ll want to prove that you are smart and thirsty for more. A drive for knowledge and a job well done is very attractive to an employer.
Get Fit, Lose Weight
This one can be very challenging, especially if you live near a classic American burger joint. I hvae set this goal many times in my life, and most of the things I have tried haven’t worked, and that’s mostly because I give up too soon. I also made the mistake of trying to invent my own workout plan without actually knowing anything about how the body loses fat and gains muscle. When in doubt, try to put on some muscle. Completing a challenging number of pushups a few times a week will be more beneficial than a lot of things you could do. That muscle build up will burn fat all by itself, so build muscle first and the fat will go. One big problem I had was that I kept setting weight goals for myself. I wanted to be at a certain weight to feel like I was in shape. I have since learned that total weight gain doesn’t really mean much if you’re still unhealthy. I now measure my fitness primarily by how I feel, then by muscle growth and thickness of the love handles. I might gain some weight during this time, but if my stomach is slimming and my chest and arms are getting bigger, I don’t care so much about what the scales tell me.
Manage Debt, Save Money
If you haven’t read our post about credit, you probably should. It might be of value to you. It deals with being financially responsible and taking the right steps to avoid or get out of debt. A couple of big things here, though, if you’re trying to manage your debt: Don’t ignore your debts. Collections will eat you alive if you wait long enough. Even if you aren’t prepared to make a payment, contact your debtor. They’re likely to be a little more patient if they know you aren’t trying to avoid payments. And once they send you to collections, they can’t do anything about it. The collection agency controls everything. So get to them before they send you to collections.
Manage Stress
Here’s a thought: Pick a new goal. Pick any of these other goals. You’ll find that if you are following through with a goal to be more financially wise, more physically fit, or more educationally prepared, your stress will be much more manageable. Also, make sure you’re getting enough sleep.
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
The desire to be green is spreading across the nation. People everywhere are getting excited about helping the planet and doing their part to reduce the human footprint. This makes it easy to find initiatives in your area. A Google Search will help you find what you’re looking for. If your area does not support a recycling service, you might be the one with a chance to change that. Contact your city to find out what they are doing to help the environment. You can also start your own program by getting separate garbage cans for recycling and otherwise.
Take a Trip
One of the beautiful things about the internet is this: you can discover wonderful and magical places very close to you. I’ve lived in the same town since 1997 and I’m still finding new things I can drive to in 5 hours or less. What I’m trying to say is that a trip doesn’t have to be to Europe. It doesn’t have to cost you $3,000. If you can’t afford that kind of trip but still want to get away, chances are you can find something fun to do in the near vicinity. It might even be fun to travel just beyond your state lines and find some random tourist attraction in the neighboring state. As far as sticking to this goal, try to set a time now. Plan on it. When friends or family start making plans around that specific time, you can tell them with certainty, “No, I can’t be there. I’ll be on my trip to ______.” If you commit to it early, you’ll be much more likely to keep that commitment to yourself.
Volunteer
The United Way. The Boys and Girls Club. Big Brother Big Sister. All of these organizations are always looking for help. There are other organizations as well, some on a local level. You could reach out to a women’s crisis center, an orphanage, or a homeless shelter. A good way to stick to this commitment is to involve a friend or family member in your service. You can hold each other accountable and work together to help others.
We wish you the motivation and strength you’ll need to stick to your New Year’s Resolution. May it be everything you plan it to be. And let us know what works for you - Leave a comment! You can also join the Vacancy fun on Facebook and Twitter.