The 3 best student New Year’s resolutions for 2018

09 Jan 2018

The New Year is here – and 2018 provides a fresh opportunity for the slate to be wiped clean and to begin the year as a better you.

It’s the perfect time to make positive changes by taking up that hobby you have been thinking about, learning a new life skill or making a mental change to improve your well-being.

Although it can be hard to stick to your resolutions, you have the opportunity to make 2018 the best year yet.

Three students have shared their resolutions for the New Year…

1) To be more optimistic

“My New Year’s resolution is to try to have a more positive outlook in life and be less stressed, realistic and sceptical towards people, situations and experiences,” Rhys Townsend, Master’s of Information Technology student at the University of West England, told Study International.

“The reason I’ve chosen this is that I’ve come to believe that approaching life in a more open-minded and enthusiastic manner enables you to experience more out of it. Rather than dismissing things, I hope to embrace the new opportunities and experiences that my course and the city of Bristol (where I hope to build my career) have to offer.

“The difficulties I expect to encounter will be the initial effort it will take to find likeminded people who share this philosophy. Another difficulty will be the temptation to go back to dismissing things or being critical of them due to stress or time constraints.

“This will be especially true as the year progresses, as I will have to balance my course commitments and building my career against my desire to seek out new opportunities and experiences – as well as to do all of that in a positive and friendly way.”

2) To start applying for graduate jobs

Fourth-year English Literature and French student at Queen Mary University of London, Charlotte Stockton, said: “This year I have promised myself to start applying for jobs for when I graduate later this year. I’m in my fourth year now which means I will be graduating in the summer.

“It’s easy to coast through the student life and suddenly have to be a real adult, which also means getting a real job. Being placed in London means I have plenty of opportunities on my doorstep, but I know that if I don’t start applying for graduate jobs soon then I will miss all of the best openings.

“I also want to take up yoga, but I think it will be difficult trying to find time to balance a new hobby with my finals and applying for jobs. I know they are all important but final-year life is already hectic with all the work so I’m going to have to properly organise myself if I want to make the changes.”

3) To be more mindful

“The two New Year’s resolutions I have made this year are both very mental health based, with one being to be more mindful in everything I do, and the other to not stress about things I can’t control,” Hetty Blundell, a Theology and Religious Studies third-year student at the University of Bristol told Study International.

“I feel I usually go through life not really concentrating on everything around me or what I’m doing in that moment. For instance when I’m eating I’m not usually concentrating on the food, I’m either watching TV or on my phone, or even if I’m reading a book my thoughts are often preoccupied with something else so I don’t really take anything in from what I should be doing.

“In trying to solely focus on the things in the moment, I feel I will appreciate the little things a lot more and enjoy life as it comes as opposed to constantly worrying about the past or future.

“In terms of whether I can keep these resolutions, I’m not too worried as they aren’t tangible things such as trying to lose weight or work harder and so on. They’re very flexible and just more of a prompt in the way I should be thinking. It’s all about improving the way I think as opposed to trying to change it completely.”