New Year’s Resolutions Made by Dubai Residents and Whether They Were Achieved
Every year, many Dubai residents make New Year’s resolutions with great zeal, but most are not able to achieve them. With the new year just around the corner, ServiceMarket, the UAE’s largest marketplace for home services, recently conducted a survey to find out the top New Year’s resolutions made by Dubai residents in 2018, the extent to which they were achieved, and why many of the respondents were not able to achieve their resolutions this year. Some of the findings of this survey may help you with keeping more New Year’s resolutions in 2019.
Most Dubai residents start their year with a resolution
Over 75% of Dubai residents who filled out the survey started the year with resolutions. Only 23.5% of the respondents did not make any New Year’s resolutions in 2018.
Dubai residents by far and large resolved to save money and get healthy
Saving money and getting healthy were the top resolutions made by Dubai residents in 2018. The most popular New Year’s resolutions were as follows:
Save more money: For 44% of the respondents, saving more money was the top New Year’s resolution. This is understandable since an earlier survey by ServiceMarket revealed that most UAE residents were not happy with their current savings and almost a quarter weren’t managing to save anything at all. One of the other top resolutions related to personal finances was to get out of debt, which 16% of the respondents resolved to do.
Get healthy: The second most popular resolution among Dubai residents was to get fit, lose weight, or stay in shape, which is hardly surprising as there is a growing demand for gym memberships and personal fitness training sessions in the country. Over 20% of the respondents also planned to eat healthier food.
Learn something new: The fact that 34.7% of the respondents aimed to learn something new during the year stands as a testament to Dubai residents’ passion for learning new things, whether they are related to their professional or personal life. A lot of respondents also planned to read more books.
Spend more time with loved ones: Dubai’s busy lifestyle often leaves many people with very little time for their loved ones, which is why 22.7% of the respondents resolved to spend more time with their friends and family.
Here’s the list of the top 10 New Year’s resolutions made by Dubai residents in 2018:
- 44% resolved to save more money
- 41.3% wanted to get fit, lose weight, or stay in shape
- 34.7% aimed to learn something new
- 22.7% wanted to spend more time with their friends and family
- 21.3% resolved to eat healthier food
- 16% planned to get out of debt
- 14.7% decided to volunteer, donate or help others
- 12% wanted to quit a bad habit
- 10.7% aimed to get organized
- 10.7% planned to travel to one or more of their dream destinations
Other interesting resolutions:
- Over 6% wanted to move to a bigger or better home and 8% planned to buy a home. This resolution might be easier to achieve now because another recent survey by ServiceMarket revealed that many Dubai residents are leveraging lower rent rates to upsize.
- More than 5% resolved to keep their home clean and tidy.
- Dubai is home to many workaholics, so it stands to reason that 8% of the respondents wanted to get more sleep.
Most Dubai residents weren’t able to achieve their resolutions
Only 24% of the respondents fully achieved the resolutions they had made in 2018. But over half of them did manage to partially or mostly achieve their New Year’s resolutions. Just 1.3% of the respondents did not make any progress in achieving their resolutions.
Top 5 reasons why Dubai residents weren’t able to achieve their resolutions
Since over 75% of the respondents were not able to achieve their resolutions, it’s worthwhile to look at the reasons behind it. While there are many factors that keep people from achieving their New Year’s resolutions, the top 5 reasons are as follows:
- 42.1% said distractions kept them from achieving their resolutions
- 38.6% did not find enough time
- 28.1% couldn’t do so due to financial constraints
- 15.8% made too many resolutions
- 14% said their goals weren’t specific/properly defined
It’s almost time to shortlist the New Year’s resolutions for 2019. While making and keeping resolutions for the upcoming year, try to minimize distractions, do proper time management, keep your goals specific, don’t make more resolutions than you can’t achieve, and only consider those that are within your budget.
If you need help with achieving some of your New Year’s resolutions, ServiceMarket might be able to help. For example, ServiceMarket can help you with moving to a new home and make it easier to keep your home cleaner, tidier, and more organized.