Swedish News:

Abba and Avicii rang in 2014 in Sweden. Keeping your resolutions. Fewer new businesses in Sweden.

Avicii, aka Tim Bergling, was one of the most played artists in Sweden as people were ringing in the new year. Photo: Shawn Tron
Abba and Avicii rang in 2014
The most popular music among Swedes celebrating the new year? Avicii. According to daily Expressen, which looked at statistics from Spotify, Avicii and Abba topped the lists of most played when the clock struck midnight. The most popular song was Abba’s ”Happy New Year;” and, Avicii’s ”Wake me up” (Read more about Avicii, listen to The hit song of summer 2013 whose hit ”Hey brother” was also played as 2014 first saw the light.
Another all-time favorite for the New Year in Sweden was, of course, Abba, and their song ”Happy New Year.”
Keeping your resolutions
Many Swedes look in the mirror when they make their resolutions. The visual makes up for 80 percent of these resolutions, actually. Our bodies (and to a degree also our health) is what we put in focus during the last minutes before the clock strikes midnight on December 31. According to a Sifo survey, the two most popular resolutions in Sweden are: eating better or healthier (48 percent) and working out (42 percent). Unfortunately the same survey shows that 80 percent fail to keep these resolutions going. Jimmy Englind is a personal trainer at Sats, and he says one of the main problems is that many people start out too hard to succeed: ”If your goal is to work out three times a week, and you currently don’t work out at all, then that change is too much. Begin with a goal to work out once a week the first month, and if you succeed with that, increase to twice a week the next month, and so on. With this method the risk of failure decreases,” he says. He also believes that you should think about what exercising really means to you: ”Do not let exercising have to do with the way you look. Instead put up goals of what you would like to be able to do, such as running a mile or do a handstand.”
Making those New Year resolutions stick? Have a plan and follow but start out gently and increase as you go. Then you’re less likely to fall off the wagon.
Fewer new businesses in Sweden
Business as usual? Perhaps, but fewer businesses have started. In 2013, 60,527 new companies were registered in Sweden, which is a decrease of 2 percent compared to the year before, according to TT.
Bill de Blasio, New York’s new mayor, uses a Swedish initiative—Vision Zero or ”nollvision”—as a way to cut traffic fatalities in the Big Apple. Here seen with his wife and children.
Abba, never out of style it seems. Still from the music video for their song ”Happy New Year,” topping the list of most played this New Year's in Sweden.