All the Best for Your New Year Resolutions

I spent the last one week randomly asking people around me (friends and colleagues at work) about their new-year resolutions. And I was surprised to note that most people had very predictable set of resolutions for 2008. People who had nothing in common (going by their personality type) strangely had very similar resolutions! The only trend I saw was that almost all resolutions could be tagged in one of the three categories (directly or indirectly) – Health, Relationship, and Money.

While relatively not-so-young (30 years +) went for “better work-life balance” and “shed extra weight”; younger folks went for “better career”, “make more money” and “regular exercise”. (Though “shed extra weight” and “regular exercise” appear quite similar in terms of desired end-results, there is stark difference in the motivation behind the two.)

Based on my one week of sampling, here are the top-five most popular resolutions (see if your resolution shows up here):
1. Regular Exercise: Most popular with young folks. Key motivator: looking attractive.
2. Shed Extra Weight: Most popular with the not-so-young. Key motivator: looking “presentable” (read: not ugly).
3. Better Career Move (read: make more money): Popular with all (more with the under 25 year category). Key motivator: peer pressure (sad but true!).
4. Quit Smoking/Drinking: Popular for all ages; more for the young (strangely).
5. Develop a New Skill (take up a hobby, etc.): Popular with the not-so-young. Key motivator: too much monotony in work/personal life.

How many people will be able to keep their resolutions is another story all-together. Random Googling points to the fact that four out of five people who make New Year’s resolutions eventually break them. In fact, a third won’t even make it to the end of January 2008.

All the best to you!