With the arrival of the new year comes a renewed sense of determination for many people.
Over the break, many people sat down and penned their goals for self-improvement this year.
It’s a tradition that goes back thousands of years in some form: New Year’s resolutions.
According to a Forbes Magazine poll, “Improved Fitness” was the most popular New Year’s resolution.
Local gym owner Nick White said the evidence is clear that the trend is alive and well in Kingston.
“So in total here, I’m seeing since Boxing Day we have 33 new sign-ups,” said White, who owns Kingston’s F45 Training.
Get the latest National news.
Sent to your email, every day.
White said the new year is consistently one of the busiest times for new membership sign-ups for his gym and gyms everywhere, year after year.
“They’ve gotten to the end of the year and they feel like, ‘OK, this is the year I want to take my health into my own hands, I want to do better,’ so yes, there is a spike because of the New Year’s resolution,”
The second most popular resolution, according to Forbes, is improved personal finance.
Chartered Financial Planner (CFP) Adam Jenkins with Stone City Wealth in Kingston said that, much like fitness centres, he sees a bump in people seeking to get their finances in shape after Jan. 1 each year.
“Retirement’s a big (reason), it’s one that I specialize in specifically and it’s helping people achieve, obviously, being able to be financially free,” Jenkins said.
In January when appointments for newly motivated resolution-makers come in, he also sees one common denominator: starting too late.
“I don’t know how many times I get people that come into my office and, you know what, they’ve got 10 years to go before they want to retire and they’re just starting to plan now. That’s not the time to do it, the time to do it is essentially yesterday,” he said.
One thing both of these industry experts say is that when it comes to achieving your New Year’s resolution, be it physical, financial or otherwise, the key is starting small and starting early.
© 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.