What are your New Year’s resolutions?
Do you make New Year’s resolutions? It’s a long tradition that doesn’t’ seem to be losing steam. Here are the top-10 New Year’s resolutions from a recent survey of 2,000 people conducted for Inc. magazine:
- Diet or eat healthier (71%)
- Exercise more (65%)
- Lose weight (54%)
- Save more and spend less–my personal favorite! (32%)
- Learn a new skill or hobby (26%)
- Quit smoking (21%)
- Read more (17%)
- Find another job (16%)
- Drink less alcohol (15%)
- Spend more time with family and friends (13%)
More from Inc.
- Women make health-focused resolutions while men pledge to find a new job and lay off the booze.
- Saving money is one of the top 5 New Year’s resolutions and also in the top 5 for most commonly failed.
- More than half of respondents said they fail their resolution before the end of January.
Business Insider asked several successful business leaders for their resolutions. Here are some interesting responses:
Danny Meyer, founder of Shake Shack
“My New Year’s resolution is once and for all to spend significantly less time reading and writing emails, and far more time being present and looking people in the eye.”
Debbie Sterling, CEO of GoldieBlox
“In 2017 I want to spend more time mentoring young women interested in entrepreneurship. It’s easy to fall into the trap of feeling too busy to give back. The truth is, the more success you have, the busier you get. So you have to proactively make time to do things that are important to you.”
Stephen Kaufer, TripAdvisor CEO
“My New Year’s resolution is to use the power and influence of TripAdvisor’s brand to aid in the humanitarian refugee crisis that we’re seeing in many parts of the Middle East, Africa, and Europe today.It’s one of the worst humanitarian disasters of our generation. Years from now, I want my grandkids to know that I joined with others and chose to help, if only in a small way.”
Bethenny Frankel, Skinnygirl founder
“Resolutions don’t need to be drastic unrealistic or unattainable. Every day, resolve to do the very best you possibly can. Do what you can when you can.”
Kat Cole, president of Focus Brands
“In 2017, my husband and I have a shared resolution of ‘accelerated growth’: discovering, experimenting, and implementing 30-day challenges that optimize our health, performance, and impact. We choose 1-2 life-hacks to radically change for the entire month, each month. It may be a new specific exercise every day or eliminating a particular food, taking a certain supplement, or a new way to connect with our friends or community, every single day for 30 straight days.”
John Schlifske, Northwestern Mutual CEO and chairman
“From a business standpoint, we’re committed to giving our clients the financial information they need when they want it. And so we’re working hard — and borrowing from technology startups and customer-first companies — to make sure our clients have an engaging digital experience that builds on the expertise of our financial representatives. Personally, I’m going in the other direction with my kids and am committed to getting them outdoors more in 2017. I want to help my 13-year-old son catch a legal ‘muskie’ — which in Wisconsin is a fish that is more than 40 inches long and doesn’t bite easily. You can’t get that adrenaline rush from a screen!”
Sallie Krawcheck, CEO of Ellevest
“I would like to find more time to think. That means less responding to emails the moment they come in, more walks, more saying ‘no’ to random requests, more ‘me and a glass of wine and a piece of paper,’ and more time with the creative people I work with and know.”
Kathryn Minshew, The Muse CEO and founder,
“In 2017, I’m excited to cook more, continue growing The Muse, and see at least one play, show, or musical every month. On the work front, we’ve more than doubled the size of our team in the last year, and I’m excited to spend 2017 investing deeply in those people and building the foundation for our long-term team, brand, and ultimately success!”
Stephanie March, actor, philanthropist, and cofounder of Rouge New York
“I am going to write a book. I am telling you this because it’s like running a marathon — if you tell a lot of people you are doing it you sort of have to. My friends have been telling me this for ages and it’s high time I go for it. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.”
Laura Vanderkam, productivity expert, author of “I Know How She Does It,”
“I want to spend more time on social media. I’m a writer first and foremost, and so I automatically think to communicate with people via books, articles, and blog posts, but there are so many other ways to connect these days. In particular, I want to do more Facebook Live chats (so easy!) and I want to finally have an active presence on Instagram. I take pictures all the time, but I never think about sharing them. Clearly my brain does not work that way, but this year I’m going to try.”
Angela Duckworth, a University of Pennsylvania psychologist and author of “Grit”
“I would like to think of three good things in my life each morning before I get out of bed. This simple ritual—called the ‘three blessings exercise’—has been shown in random-assignment research to make you happier, but I’m doing it for a different reason. In fact, I’m doing it for its own sake. I want to appreciate what’s going right in my life, especially the people who make my life so wonderful.”
Neil Vogel, CEO of About.com
“My almost-3-year old is obsessed with the guitar, so my goal is to learn to play guitar serviceably. Only then will I be on par with his other great hero, Spiderman.”
Tags: 2017, business resolutions, New Year's resolutions, The Valcort Group