Happy New Year, Mountain Lions, and welcome back! Congrats on surviving the first month of 2026. I hope you fixed your sleep schedules just enough to make it through the first few weeks of class. In the spirit of the new year, I am excited to present a new advice column to help you survive the trials and tribulations of college life.
As we settle in for the spring semester, I’m sure we’ve continued the tradition of making new year’s resolutions we’ll forget about by mid-February — if they even last that long. Sometimes, setting goals is fun in theory, but fails in practice, so here’s some motivation and guidance to help you stick to your goals this year.
Slow down, you’re doing fine
It might seem counterintuitive by starting the new year by slowing down, but transitioning into early adulthood is terrifying and happens fast. I swear I blinked and four years went by.
The truth is, so much changes between high school and college. A few years might not seem drastic, but we change so much between ages 18-25. I am different than I was one year ago, and a world away from where I was when I was 18 years old.
Its hard to not compare yourself with your peers and measure your milestones against theirs, but comparison is the thief of joy. Ditch the rigid timeline and celebrate your progress even if you feel like it’s small. Take things day by day, or minute by minute if you have to.
You’re not doing yourself any favors by trying to fix everything overnight. It’s hard not to feel like you’re falling behind, but I promise you’re going to be on time when it’s right for you.
Start small and pace yourself
The pressures of trying to figure out what we want to do with the rest of our lives while navigating college life can make achieving goals feel so unattainably daunting. Obviously don’t just let your dreams be dreams — but setting the bar low and starting with simpler, smaller goals will feel significantly more rewarding.
It’s hard to stay motivated when you feel like you aren’t seeing results. You’ll accomplish flossing everyday much sooner than you’ll be able to run a marathon, but pacing yourself with small tasks will give you faster results and keep you going.
Be realistic and specific
We have broad, big plans and big dreams with a wide-open world just waiting for us, which is wonderful and I encourage you to chase them regardless, but we have to be realistic.
It’s one thing to conceptualize a plan and it’s another to make it concrete. You’re going to overwhelm yourself if you try to take on goals that aren’t realistic for you to achieve this year and you won’t end up doing them at all.
For example, you can make traveling one of your resolutions, but you likely can’t just pack up and fly to Thailand on a random Tuesday. Even if you could, you’ll have to work out the specifics, like booking a plane ticket, reserving boarding, setting up transportation, budgeting and so on.
Align your goal with where you are in your life realistically and go from there. Write them down and check on your progress every month — that way you can adjust them if you need to, which there is no shame in doing.
Lighten the emotional load
Take an inventory and determine whether something you carried over into 2026 is helping you or hurting you. I know it can be tough, but if it isn’t serving you, it’s setting you back and you have to make some changes.
Staying stuck in the past and shaking your fist at the sky saying, “what if?” and “why me?” is unproductive and stunts your emotional growth. Shift your focus to reflecting on how you can learn and grow from things you experienced last year — you have to let go of the rope at some point.
You can’t change the past, but you can better yourself in the present and change your outcome in the future, so set goals that will help you grow past it.
New year, know yourself
Completely reinventing yourself in one night is not possible – trust me, I’ve tried.
Instead of saying new year, new me, and sending it without a second thought, think about why you want to change. Take some time to self-reflect on the “old you.”
Ask yourself questions like: What about the last year has motivated me to set these goals, and why are they important to me? Are my goals centered around what I truly want?
It’s hard not to have an identity crisis at this stage of our lives, but taking the time to get to know yourself will help you find your center so that you can put your motivations and intentions into perspective.
You’ll always carry parts of the past versions of yourself, so work toward goals that would make them proud, because you are counting on you.
New Years Resolutions. Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash.