The new year is coming around and that means everyone is coming up with plans on how the new year is going to be better for them and how they’re leaving all of their problems behind in 2019, but it’s important to know that good new year’s resolutions are the ones you can stick to, not the ones that sound like they have a fantastic, but unachievable end result. Good new year’s resolutions are plans to change your thinking process, because thinking more about what you want from life, will help you to make better changes in your life than telling yourself “I want to be fit!” will.  

The first step to picking a new year’s resolution that will change your thought process is asking yourself, “What in my life isn’t working for me?” 

If you feel that your grades in certain classes aren’t working for you, then there’s your answer. 

The next step is to take the answer from the previous question and ask yourself, “Why isn’t this working?” 

Why are your grades not as high as you want them to be? These answers will be different for everyone, and could range from “My expectations for myself are too high,” to, “I’m not paying enough attention in class.”

Then you have to ask yourself, “Why?” again. 

Why are your expectations too high?  Your expectations could be too high from outside forces, such as pressure from family, or from goals for later in your life that you feel will be impossible to achieve without succeeding to the fullest extent in high school. 

Why are you not paying enough attention in class? You could have trouble concentrating around the people you sit with, or you could just be in a class that you’re not suited to. 

With these “Why?” questions answered, it’s time to make a plan. Your plan shouldn’t be any actual actions. It should just be a plan to think differently. 

If the outside pressure is making your expectations too high, your plan should be to remind yourself that you’re not doing school for anyone else. You’re doing it for yourself. If your expectations are high due to goals in the future, it could be helpful to sit down and think about your goals and remind yourself that your life goals don’t need to be achieved in high school. You have time and you deserve to do the best you can do, and everything else will fall into place. 

If you’re not concentrating in class because of the people you sit around, it would be important to think about what you care about more. Do you care more about the jokes your friends are making or your grades? If you’re not concentrating in class due to being in a class that’s not suited for you, you need to think about what the class is doing for you, and if it’s benefiting you in any way. 

All of these make you think about your life and think about what will make you perceive your life in a better light. It will make it easier to implement positive changes on a daily basis rather than for a month at the beginning of the year.