What’s your resolution for the year?

“This year, I'll quit smoking, lose 20 pounds, stop swearing, and go to temple or church." Those are some common things people resolve around the New Year. But while 45 per cent set New Year's resolutions, only eight per cent are successful at achieving them, according to a survey by the Opinion Corporation.

We often tend to make resolutions during the start of a new year and break them within no time. While thinking and talking about resolutions women from varied fields put their viewpoint about it.

Women should not be bound to any restrictions that’s when they can take a resolution says B Divya, a software professional. “I believe in the free spirit and so I feel that people should take resolutions to give freedom to women so that they can empower themselves.”

While a few women take resolutions to do something big in the New Year a few of them feel it should not be taken if it is not implemented.

D Swetha who has entered motherhood recently and also works at Deloitte as an HR says, “I think that every woman has to make something as a habit in order to achieve something. If we decide to something in life the interest should generate within ourselves. If you cannot stand on doing something new, then one should not make resolutions.”

However, resolutions have been the most common thing that is taken during a New Year. Well, here are a few things that you can resolve this year without breaking a resolution but following a new pattern.

If you resolve to eat healthier:
Simply increase fruit and vegetable intake by buying ready to eat, washed and cut up fruits and vegetables and keeping them in the refrigerator at work and at home. When you need a snack, they will be readily available to eat, with no work involved.

If you resolve to exercise more:
Follow the 10-minute rule: We all have 10 minutes to spare for our own well-being throughout the day. Ten minutes of walking around the block, taking the stairs instead of the elevator, getting off the train just one stop before our own, or even doing "chair squats" at the office are healthier than ten minutes of inactivity.

If you resolve to clear the clutter:
The best way to accomplish any of your goals is to start by clearing the clutter mentally, physically, spiritually, and emotionally.

If you resolve to get a new look:
Hair is your most important accessory to reinvent yourself, focus on a customised cut that enhances your face shape and silhouette and colour that accents your skin tone.

If you resolve to talk less and listen more:
Get in the habit of calling people by their name. Whether in an office environment, at a store, or pumping gas, calling people by name will help you to become a better listener.

If you resolve to solve world hunger:
The lesson here is that most of us create resolutions that are too "big." Be honest with yourself! Examine your resolutions. Are they realistic? Are they what you really want, or did you commit to them because you thought you were supposed to?

If you resolve to reduce stress:
Simply find a quiet place, sit up straight, and focus on the physical sensation of both your out-breath and your in-breath. The more you meditate, the more you notice how you get hooked by strong emotions and the more you are able to simply be present with them when they arise.

- With inputs from D Shreya Veronica.