There are six weeks left in 2023, but some people on social media are already popping the champagne, yelling “Happy New Year!” and jump-starting their resolutions.
Proactively setting goals for the year ahead has become trendy online, where a number of creators have been posting videos and memes detailing the ways they have already gotten into a 2024 mind-set.
“It is Nov. 1, which means only one thing: It is about time to set your 2024 goals,” Kia Commodore, a content creator and podcast host, said in a recent TikTok video. Unlike waiting until Jan. 1, she explained, this approach “gives you two months to get started on your goals” and make sure those self-improvement resolutions stick.
The early online arrival of New Year’s Day is in keeping with the hyper-fast pace of the internet, where it’s never too early to celebrate the next season or holiday.
In an Instagram post on Aug. 1, the social media personality Steffy Degreff appeared in a video that showed her sipping a comically large Starbucks pumpkin spice latte in a kitchen decorated with pumpkins and other harvest season adornments. “Happy August!!!!” she said in a caption. “Which means it’s basically September, so it’s actually Fall.”
Online, Christmas starts as soon as people compost their jack-o’-lanterns. A popular meme contrasts the sudden change a supposedly typical person goes through as the calendar flips from October to November. Envision side-by-side pictures of Mariah Carey. In the Halloween photo, she’s wearing a witch costume; on Nov. 1, she appears in a Santa suit, as she does on the cover of her album “Merry Christmas.”
Now the impatient souls of social media have come for New Year’s Day. Health goals. Personal growth. Start immediately, no Times Square ball drop required!
“Your 2024 glow up starts now!” Jodie Taylor, 32, wrote in a caption to a TikTok video that she posted in September.
In the video, Ms. Taylor, a diversity executive and lifestyle content creator who lives in Brooklyn, provides guidelines for making an “official plan of action to glow up by the end of the year and really pop into 2024.” She takes a businesslike approach to the plan, referring to the year’s final months as “Q4” in a pep talk that covers career, finances, spirituality and physical appearance.
“Instead of a resolution, which tends to feel more nebulous and vague, I wanted people to start thinking about what areas of their life contribute to their own well-being,” Ms. Taylor said in an interview. “When you start goal planning on Jan. 1, by Jan. 2, you’re not really going to see much progress.”
Carter Kale, 26, wrote down his 2024 goals in October and posted them on TikTok. “A full quarter in advance,” Mr. Kale said, echoing Ms. Taylor’s repurposing of corporate jargon for personal betterment.
His list included hitting 200,000 followers on TikTok, reading 10 books and buying a home. Mr. Kale, who lives in Washington, D.C., and works in government consulting, said he hoped that sharing his goals early would help motivate him and hold him accountable.
Of course, if your 2024 plans don’t pan out, there’s always 2025. Which is almost here.
