A New Year has come upon us, and for some, resolutions would seem like a no brainer. According to a YouGov poll, finances, physical, and mental health were top priorities for Americans. Yet, not all of these resolutions are met, with a Life Hack article reporting some of the reasons that plagued people from pursuing their resolutions range from a lack of accountability to underestimating what effort would need to be put into any resolution. An article from Ohio State University’s Fisher College of Business reported that only 9% of Americans complete their resolutions, with 23% quitting their resolutions in just the first week, and 43% quitting by the end of January. I, too, have tried resolutions in the past (during grade school) and have failed to see them through, mainly because I traveled to things that interested me, like seeing more trains within the year. Retrospectively looking back, these resolutions were too ambitious for someone in grade school, which may have contributed to my lack of interest in making resolutions then and now.
Although I haven’t made successful resolutions just yet, there are many suggestions experts have proposed to help people achieve the resolutions they make every new year. The University of California Davis Health gave 7 helpful tips to keep these resolutions, with some being: be picky about your resolutions, set very specific goals, and choose a new resolution that isn’t something you’ve attempted in the past. These options for pursuing your resolutions are feasible, but people don’t usually dig for the options on keeping their resolutions/goals intact because they don’t lean on the sources provided for success or listen to the advice that is given by others. According to the Baylor College of Medicine, many resolutions fail because they’re either unachievable or too idealistic. The Baylor article also offers some other solutions to stop any failed resolutions, like make realistic goals, track your progress, and never tackle the resolution alone (i.e. doing it with friends and/or family), with the overall emphasis on making them short term.
Yet, resolutions are an individual’s choice, not a common consensus that should be held up by society, with WebMD reporting that resolutions are made due to a sense of renewal that activates hopes and expectations for the new year. Some people don’t do New Year’s resolutions because of some of the problems the resolutions force them to face. Others try again next year. As someone who has tried and failed to keep resolutions, there shouldn’t be a societal norm to make them or succeed with the impossible goal of achieving said resolution in a short amount of time. Even if the time period for a resolution is reasonable, most people will drop the goal in only days. Resolutions are a choice, not something to conform to.
