The clock strikes midnight and marks the moment our lives are supposed to change. Whether it’s bettering ourselves, bettering others or bettering our planet, lots of people set resolutions for themselves to achieve in the upcoming year.
Heading into 2024, many people like to say “new year, new me” and choose to make resolutions—whether it’s the overall goal to be healthier or a specific goal like getting into the college of your dreams. But, most of the time, those goals and dreams start and end in the same conversation, without any true hope of being fulfilled.
New Year’s resolutions have a stigma, and most people never stick with them. Although they suck, the idea of New Year’s resolutions is nice but there are better alternatives, such as picking a theme for the year, compartmentalizing or focusing on 12 weeks at a time.
Senior Peyton Green has always found benefits in setting goals for herself but doesn’t think only setting big goals is productive. Green has tried pinpointing a larger intention for herself but has found it’s not as successful as when she made smaller targets within one big one. She thinks this is one of the main faults of New Year’s resolutions that many people don’t focus on.
“I think people set [New Year’s resolutions] with the right intention, but instead of just setting one huge and unrealistic goal, they really need to lay out the stepping stones for how to get there,” Green said.
Oftentimes, when people set goals for themselves at the start of the year, they are large and have no feasible success strategy. This creates a New Year’s resolution that never gets accomplished. A very common example of this is the goal of running a marathon. By just telling yourself you’re going to run a marathon sometime in the year, it likely won’t happen. But, if you set up a monthly running plan of when and how long you’re going to run, the goal becomes much easier to accomplish.
About 25 percent of people who set resolutions in January give up within the first week and only about 35 percent of people actually make it to February, according to Calendar Productivity. That’s not a very promising outlook for the new year, goal-wise.
While some people set resolutions but never stick to them, others are just not that into the whole practice for different reasons. Junior Elle Rylant claims to never have been into setting resolutions but she understands why other people do.
“It’s nice to have the feeling of a fresh start,” Rylant said.
For years, I would set resolutions and specific goals I wanted to change at the beginning of the year only, but I’ve recently tried to switch my mentality; it’s important to have constant goals throughout the year and not take on more than you can do. Sometimes setting tons of resolution would make me feel constantly overwhelmed and anxious, which isn’t great. I already feel enough of that from school.
Accomplishing goals and sticking with resolutions is not as much about motivation but about discipline. Those who are firm believers in setting resolutions but never follow through with them likely lack discipline and rely on motivation. You have to realize that motivation won’t always be there when you want it, but knowing why you’re doing something is important to keep your intentions straight.
Some people are already aware of this, like Freshman Moseley Maxwell, who has a more positive outlook on goal-setting.
“If you make realistic goals for yourself and things you know you’ll put in the effort to make happen then I think they are worth it,” Maxwell said.
However, sophomore Jacob Kerr has never really understood the talk about setting New Year’s resolutions. When he does set goals for himself, he tries to make them tangible.
“I definitely try to set goals that I know I will work towards,” Kerr said.
Another way to refresh your life going into the new year is by making an ins and outs list. If you’re on TikTok, there’s no way you haven’t seen this trend. Still, it’s more useful than we realize. Making a list of specific things you want to bring in this year and out this year creates a denser and more straightforward list of intentions to bring in or out of the new year.
Don’t get me wrong, I think New Year’s resolutions suck. But, setting goals and having a way to actually achieve them is great. And, if you can take it one step at a time, you might reach your ending intention sooner than you think.
