Quitter’s Day
Why most people today abandon their New Year’s resolutions
© Jacob Lund / Adobe Stock
Have you made any New Year’s resolutions? Then there’s a good chance you’ll break it today – on Quitters Day.
Oh yes, January 1st. When I take my New Year’s walk, it’s fully glazed Gym (who even comes up with such ideas?) around the corner is jam-packed. On every treadmill, cross trainer and other fun machine there are people who are obviously doing this either for the first time or at least for a long time.
Of course, there is nothing wrong with resolving to do something for your own health and develop good habits. The problem with such resolutions is usually that they want too much at once – and can rarely be implemented realistically. From one day to the next we just want to eat “healthily” (as if that could be so easily generalized for every single person), stop drinking alcohol and go to the gym four times a week – at least.
Quitters Day: The day when resolutions come to an end
Which then brings us to the scene at the gym on January 1st. People who exercise regularly usually know that in a few weeks the studio will be as pleasantly empty as usual – those who have overexerted themselves have then given up again.
And there is even a name for this phenomenon: The second Friday in January is traditionally “Quitters Day.” This year Quitters Day falls on January 12th. So today will be the day when – at least statistically speaking – the gyms will become emptier again, more pizza will be ordered again and similar resolutions will be thrown overboard.
Healthy habits – how to get better?
But how do we really manage to establish good habits? In any case, tough cuts and extreme changes are rarely the right way. Instead, experts recommend setting small but realistic goals. The best way to develop healthy behavior is to take small steps towards our goals every day. Instead of focusing on the intensity of the habit, we can better work on consistency and continuity first. It’s better to do a little at first, but then regularly. This makes it much easier for us to stay on the ball in the long term.
So, for example, instead of resolving to do an hour of exercise four times a week from January 1st, when previously you practically only moved from the couch to the fridge, you could approach it differently. First, try to go for a walk for at least half an hour every day and/or start every day with ten minutes of exercise, such as yoga or a short workout. You don’t even need an expensive (and unpleasantly full of glass) gym for this; you can find countless good videos for this on YouTube, for example.
And once you’ve established this in your daily routine, you could step it up and schedule a bigger workout once or twice a week. This could be 30 minutes of jogging or dancing – whatever you enjoy. Because this factor should not be underestimated either: our good habits are definitely easier for us if we enjoy them.
Bye-bye, inner critic – hello, balance!
But the most important thing with all good resolutions: we should work with ourselves and not against ourselves. Many of us tend to be very hard on ourselves – a little gentleness in dealing with ourselves and our mistakes certainly wouldn’t hurt. Because not only do we make life unnecessarily difficult for ourselves when we only focus on what we can’t do and what we haven’t done yet. It is also anything but effective.
If we instead manage to look at what we really need and what would be good for us – and yes, exercise and a largely balanced diet are certainly part of it – we will benefit more in the long term than if we punish ourselves and things deny us things that could sometimes be good for us. For example, a relaxing afternoon with a book or a few pieces of chocolate. Finding a healthy balance isn’t easy – but it’s more helpful in the long term than any New Year’s resolution.