8 New Year Promises for Success and Happiness in 2025

In theory, New Year resolutions are a fabulous idea. In practice, however, this annual ritual has become a bit of a joke, to the point that people make bets about how long their friends’ and loved ones’ resolutions are going to last. For some, it’s gotten so futile that they’ve stopped making resolutions altogether.

According to a recent YouGov survey, 16% of British people want to set a goal for 2025 in the new year. Among the top resolutions are weight loss, exercise, stopping smoking, learn a new skill or hobby, saving more money, pursuing a career and find a new job.” But why do so many resolutions fail?

While research points out: many resolutions are unrealistic and poorly executed. “And most involve inspiration but no preparation”. “Telling yourself, I will exercise for an hour every day, when in reality your responsibilities at work and home do not allow that time, you set yourself up for failure. When we then fail to sustain our resolutions, we become discouraged,”.

Every time the new year arrives, we get ready to make fresh starts. The word new conjures up visions of new beginnings and of starting afresh, doesn’t it? For some of us who may be starting a dream job or found a new relationship or have decided to move on from old bondages, the challenges maybe brave a somewhat different.

Yet, when we make all these exciting plans for the New Year, we somehow tend to feel that come January, we’ll transform overnight into someone new. As we all know and have perhaps experienced a few times, this new self emerges and stays until mid-January and then old habits set in and we are back to where we began-perhaps a bit dejected but often a lot wiser.

What New Year’s Resolutions are Britons Making in 2025?

Here we’ve put together a list of resolutions for you to try. What’s more, you can make these a part of your life, today.

1. Set a Fresh Start:

While starting afresh is a wonderful thing, good intentions alone may not do. We need a Fresh Start Goal and a Fresh Start Plan. Keep them simple: for example, this year I have decided that I want to be more prepared for Mondays because that is the day when I need to be most alert. A simple Fresh Start Plan is one that’s workable and can be simplified further. That way you are able to break up your targets and try and achieve each target one by one, making you feel more in control.

2. Think Through and Prioritize:

We often want to make multiple changes at one go. Try to prioritize the changes that you are aiming for into three groups. The first including goals that are must dos! Then keep those that are desirable but not essential. The third could have neither essential nor the most desirable objectives but changes that you have been wanting for a long time. You could group these goals in order of importance or difficulty, ensuring that the first group does not have the most difficult ones.

3. Spend less, save more:

Begin by cutting up some of your credit cards. Keep a card for emergencies-sudden hospital expenses, unexpected travel, and so on. But on an everyday basis, force yourself to ignore hard-sell from your favorite shopping portal. Don’t head to the shopping mall for recreation, you’ll end up buying stuff you don’t need. Every financial planner will tell you that spending less is the first step to saving more and building a healthier bank balance. Aim to save at least 10% of what you earn after taxes-15% if you’re over 35 and haven’t started yet. Move the amount you plan to save into your savings accounts early into the month, you cannot spend what you don’t have.

Read: What Warren Buffett an American businessman says Poor People Waste Money on These 6 Things.

4. Befriend your inner child:

Being a hands-on worker and parent is equally beneficial. Designate a time of day when you switch off your smart phones, your touch-screens, unplug your gaming consoles. Why not spend some time every day, or every week, creating comical characters and spinning super inventive stories for your children? It keeps those brain cells buzzing, and as a bonus you get booster-shots of the best possible kind-hugs and kisses from your delighted children! More important, a growing body of research finds that media overload and overexposure can increase your risk for depression, social anxiety, job burnout, and many more.

Also Read: 10 Things That May Be Sabotaging Your Success

5. Conquer clutter, open up your mind:

Unconnecting yourself from a constantly ‘connected’ world is a start. Build on it by uncluttering your home as well. Yes, research finds that picking up scattered toys or making the beds every day, can be helpful and therapeutic. “Living in the midst of clutter saps your energy,” “Clean up your mess, and it will open up your life for more positive energy”.

6. Randomly, act Kind:

Few things are as easy or provide as much instant gratification as donating time or money to people in need. Donate, or better still, try and volunteer at your local government-or NGO-run home for the elderly. These random acts of kindness will make you feel unbelievably good about yourself. And it will also boost your physical well-being, says a study from Duke University and the National University of Singapore. Researchers looked at survey data collected from more than 3,200 middle-aged Americans who were asked questions related to the frequency of their volunteer work and their mental and physical health. Those who volunteered also experienced a lasting boost in ‘eudemonic’ well-being, or feelings that your life has purpose.

7. Make a Vision Board:

Be brave and adventurous but make sure you have a vision board for slip-ups and for alternate road maps. Always remember that you will need support and assistance to stay on track. Be creative and use an actual board where you write your cues or use pictures to keep yourself on track.

So, if your plan is not to spend more than a certain amount in a week, have a cue for looking at your expenses or have a small envelope on your vision board where you keep all your paid bills. Keep phone numbers of friends you can go for a walk with if you have missed your morning exercise or pin your mum’s phone number up on the board to act as a reminder that you need to call her. Being accountable to another person also helps with managing slip ups.

Enlist a friend for mutual support and motivation. Once you have a plan, work backwards and anticipate the challenges you may face. Take stock of your personality traits that could be an obstacle to seeing this plan to completion. One major hurdle is our idiosyncratic signature time and energy wasting activities. Identify them, and on your vision board make a plan to deal with them.

8. Create your own Happy New Year:

Setting yourself a smart, achievable goal is a beautiful, involving and an evolving process. It’s a centering and scientific art and skill. You don’t have to wait for a date for transformation. If you are committed and understand what a bad habit is doing to your life, then that moment is the beginning of the fresh year. The human mind is forever conspiring to find strategies and tricks to avoid confronting an issue or habit. We don’t have to wait for the New Year to change your self for good. Whenever you are ready…you can celebrate fresh beginnings. So, make it your Happy New Year.

Finally, take a detour from your usual ways to achieve this goal in creative ways. Other than the plans of dieting, exercising more or working harder, have at least one change goal this year that is exciting, fun or playful. You’ll find you will look forward to the year even more!