Guest post by Evolve MMA, Asia’s premier championship brand for martial arts. It has the most number of World Champions on the planet. Named as the #1 ranked martial arts organization in Asia by CNN, Yahoo! Sports, FOX Sports, Evolve MMA is the top rated Martial Arts gym in Singapore.

A new year is here, bringing countless opportunities and opening new doors for us all. With hopes of a new beginning, a fresh start, we start a brand new chapter in our lives.

While some would like to maintain the course of life they are going through, there’s a great majority of people who are already writing a list of resolutions or changes that they want to follow for the new year.

Resolutions are promises or plans we make for ourselves to improve our lives in the coming year. Some people want to break bad habits, while others want to make new ones. Regardless of what resolution you commit to, the main goal is to enrich your life and make it better than the year before.

Goals vary from one individual to another based on the type of change they want to make, and for us to successfully attain these goals, we have to make them specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely. This helps push us further, gives us a sense of direction, and helps us organize and meet our goals.

If you haven’t made a list of resolutions yet, below are a couple of suggestions. Today, Evolve Daily shares four easy New Year’s resolutions you’ll be able to keep in 2021.

1) Invest in experiences

• Learn new skills. Enjoy new hobbies

Learning is a life-long journey. There is no end to it. There are countless hobbies and disciplines we can explore and try.

Maybe we have yet to realize our different talents and passions. Until we start exploring, we will never know.

Whether it’s picking up a new language, playing an instrument, learning to prepare your favorite dish on your own, or joining a martial arts class, there’s something new you can learn and master if you give it enough time and effort.

Martial arts is the key to unlocking your true potential, physically, mentally, and spiritually. It helps you achieve the body of your dreams, turns you into a seasoned athlete, and gives you many other benefits. You’ll become more confident, sharper, and more focused.

Martial arts training will no doubt help you achieve your fitness goals quickly and effectively, with results that will stick. Whether it’s boxing, Muay Thai, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, or mixed martial arts, you’ll reach your fitness goals in no time through consistent training. A one-hour Muay Thai class, for example, can burn up to 1,000 calories.

Is this the year where you finally realize new passions and unlock new talents?

2) Take control of your life

The first and seemingly the most difficult goal to achieve is just getting your life in order. It may sound daunting, but it is attainable if you make small lifestyle changes that can make a huge impact on your life.

• Eat healthily

Making small adjustments and substitutions in food can already lead to an enormous difference. These small steps could snowball into remarkable change. It does not always have to be a drastic change in your life, it’s good to start somewhere you know you can keep up with not just for a couple of days but for the long run.

• Stay active

Start a fitness program that you enjoy doing and that you could commit to on the regular. Our daily schedules can constrain us from getting our workouts done, but that’s when we need to practice proper time management and still make our health our biggest priority.

If still pressed for time, there are a lot of circuit training workouts available that you could follow, and it only takes as short as 20 minutes to get a full workout.

• Commit to a healthier lifestyle

We are responsible and accountable for our health, and if we keep in mind to make our well-being a priority, we could reap so many health benefits, and the quality of our lives would improve from the inside out.

3) Save more money

• Curtail mindless spendings

We will try to leave mindless spending in the previous year. Before making a purchase, whether it’s big or small, here’s a list of questions you can ask yourself before doling out your hard-earned cash.

Can I really afford it? What will I do with it? How often will I use it? Do I really even want it? Can I just borrow it from someone I know?

We ought to practice asking ourselves these questions no matter how small the price is so we can be more mindful of our spending and save more money for our future or emergencies.

• Start saving for your future

Based on the popular 50/30/20 rule, you should save 50 percent of your paycheck for living essentials like rent and food, 30 percent for personal spending, and at least 20 percent for savings.

4) Build better relationships

• Focus on improving communication with significant others

This coming year, most of us are going to strive to be better partners by focusing on improving our communication with our significant others. Through listening carefully and listening to understand and not to respond, we have a great way to listen effectively. It’s an integral part of communication.

Communication happens when your partner understands you, not just when you speak. One of the dangers with communication is that we can work on the assumption that the other person has understood the message we are trying to get across.

• Spend more time with your family

We can strengthen our ties with our family members daily just by being present emotionally and physically.

Sometimes we just limit family bonding to eating out or traveling together, but it’s beyond that and simpler than it seems. When we share a meal at home or have a short chat with them, we can build lasting relationships when we make ourselves available for our family.

It is when we put time and effort into being a part of their lives, and when we show sincere interest in them and treat them kindly, we are already fortifying and nurturing our relationships.

Make 2021 the best year of your life by picking New Year’s resolutions you’ll actually be able to stick to. Start with the transformative effects of martial arts. Joining a martial arts gym will do wonders for your life. So give it a try and see the world from a new perspective.