How to Achieve Your 2020 New Year’s Resolutions

The New Year is a time for fresh starts, positive mindsets, and correcting mistakes of the past. Many of us choose to make New Year’s resolutions as a way to take those first steps toward reaching our long-held goals. The only problem is that a whopping 80% of New Year’s resolutions fail by February.

Rather than giving up on this prime moment for self-improvement, why not let PicMonkey help you achieve your aspirations? Believe it or not, our handy tools and templates can be the key to changing your life for the better.

Get healthy with a food and exercise tracking calendar

One of the most common New Year’s resolutions is the vow to improve our health through diet and exercise. We commit to regular workouts at the gym, finally signing up for a personal trainer, joining a tennis team or soccer league, or running a marathon. And we promise ourselves to skip the sweet treats and white carbs and instead load up on fruits, veggies, and whole grains. But while getting healthy might be the most popular New Year’s resolution, it’s also one of the hardest to keep.

Part of the problem is that it’s so easy to sneak that cookie, take seconds of that pasta, skip the gym, or opt for the couch over the evening run. So we recommend using one of our calendar templates to map out your goals for the day, then record exactly what you’ve eaten and the exercise you’ve done to ensure your actions match up with your intentions. We think it’s a great way to increase the chances that you’ll keep your resolutions and hold yourself accountable.

Start or grow your business by building your brand

If you have aspirations to start a business or you want to grow your current business into something bigger and better, you’ll need to work on developing your brand. PicMonkey has a variety of tools to help you do that, from brand boards to logo templates to business templates. We also have a whole library of tutorials and blog articles to help you make a color palette, give you holiday marketing ideas, create product packaging, and much more.

Secure a better job with a resume template

We spend a huge portion of our lives at work, so putting up with a dead-end job, bad boss, or toxic office environment can really take a toll on our well-being. If your resolution is to finally make a move and start your search for new employment, PicMonkey can help with our resume templates. Choose the look and layout that’s right for you, then plug in your information, skills, and experience to create a resume that will get you noticed by hiring managers. Be sure to check out our cover letter templates as well, and learn the tips and tricks to writing a winning resume

Improve your profiles with social media templates

Some people scroll, browse, and post on social so incessantly, they resolve to get off these platforms completely for the New Year. But rather than going cold turkey, why not instead try to be more purposeful with your posting? Putting quality over quantity will not only please your friends and followers, it will make you feel better about your social outputs and possibly keep you from ODing on digital communications. And if you’re online promoting your own business, it’s even more critical that your posts look as sharp as possible.

Getting more intentional about your social presence can be as simple as using PicMonkey’s customizable templates for your Instagram Stories, Facebook posts, and Pinterest pins. Or it could be about making your pics look their best with photo editing, effects, and filters. You can even create images with inspirational quotes to share with your networks.

Plan a vacation with a vision board

Many of us like to contemplate taking life-changing journeys to far-flung destinations. But when vacation time rolls around, we often end up doing the same old things we’ve done year after year, choosing the tried and true over the intriguing unknown. One way to get out of our vacation rut and plan an exciting adventure is to create a vision board. Use one of our vision board templates to collect inspiring images of the places, experiences, and sensations you fantasize about, and take that first step toward making your dreams a reality. 

Find a mate with the perfect profile pic

Some say you can only find love when you stop looking for it. But tell that to the almost 50 million people in the United States and the millions more worldwide who’ve looked for a mate online. While dating apps and websites can be frustrating, yielding plenty of disappointments and near misses, they’ve also brought long-lasting love to millions of couples. So what is the secret to finding a partner online? One of the most important things you can do is post attractive, appealing, and accurate pictures of yourself.

PicMonkey has a ton of tools you can use to create gorgeous profile pics that highlight your strengths, downplay your flaws, and attract potential suitors. You can use our extensive array of Touch Up tools to do everything from whitening your teeth to brightening your eyes to adding a bit of mascara. Add one of our effects or textures to cast a shimmering glow, give your colors a boost, or blanket your photo in bokeh. Or just use our editing tools to fix your pics’ lighting, contrast or cropping.  

Express gratitude with thank you notes

People are trying to be more grateful for what they have—focusing on appreciating their health, happiness, and loved ones—rather than always striving for more. One of the best ways to express our gratitude to the people around us is to send them thank you cards. Because digital communication has become the norm, people get particularly excited when they receive a real-life letter in the mail. So next time someone gives you a gift, does you a favor, takes you out to lunch, or just acts like a true friend, thank them with some words and images straight from the heart. 

Decorate your home with framed pictures

If you’ve been staring at empty walls for far too long, you could make decorating your home one of your New Year’s resolutions. Rather than going to a gallery or decor shop to find pictures to hang, why not create your own with PicMonkey? Take a shot from a recent vacation or some family pics and give them the old PicMonkey treatment. Or check out our gorgeous stock photos and pick something that strikes your fancy. Once you’ve got your image edited to your liking, go to the PicMonkey Print Shop, where you can order everything from canvas prints to museum quality framed prints. 

Connect with loved ones through holiday cards

Do you tell yourself every November that this will be the year when you finally send out holiday cards? While you might have the best of intentions, getting it together to create your cards and distribute them digitally or via snail mail can be overwhelming. That’s where PicMonkey’s holiday card templates come into play. We’ve got tons of card styles for everything from Christmas to Hanukkah to Festivus, so it’s easy to just plop in your own photos and messages or just use our designs as is. 

Learn new design skills with PicMonkey

Some people aim to learn a new skill for the New Year, and what could be more important skills to have than photo editing and design? Sure, PicMonkey is super easy to use and requires no design expertise. But by getting to know PicMonkey’s many tools and features at a deeper level, you’ll be able to create images you never thought possible. So if you don’t make a single other resolution this year, commit yourself to becoming a true PicMonkey master.

Ring in the New Year with a PicMonkey subscription!
Molly Shapiro

Before joining the PicMonkey editorial team as a senior writer, Molly wrote about topics as varied as politics, finance, global health, and online dating. As a fiction writer, she’s published two books, both available on Amazon through totally non-sketchy retailers. A midwestern transplant who now calls Seattle home, Molly firmly believes that the Space Needle is way cooler than the Eiffel Tower.