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New Year’s resolutions are pointless. I feel that making a decision on a specific day cannot help you make major life changes. It’s not to say that people don’t succeed in keeping their own resolutions. However, almost all are left unfulfilled, with research showing that only 9% of Americans who make New Year’s resolutions complete them.
Recently, I decided to focus on my health and begin going to the gym after the New Year. However, I did not accomplish my goals. Not only was I overconfident, but I was also under the extreme pressure of fulfilling numerous responsibilities like completing my school assignments, working a job and extracurricular activities.
Instead, you should be able to work on yourself at any point in time, not just the New Year. Here’s four reasons explaining why:
It’s the worst time to make a resolution
Sustainable change can start at any time, not just Jan. 1. While you may think it’ll be a fresh start for you as the new year begins, it’s the worst day to start making changes as we recover from the holiday blues when feelings of sadness, anxiety and stress are often triggered by family conflicts, unrealistic expectations and loneliness. Therefore, if you’re ready to work on yourself and make a change, you should be able to do it at any point you feel is best rather than waiting for a specific date during which you might not be at your best.
Our expectations get the worst of us
Change takes dedication, time and commitment. In the hopes of having a great new year, we sometimes get overambitious with our goals and resolutions. For example, we create impossible and unattainable goals, such as reading five books in a month. However, when we are unable to do this, our unrealistic expectations and eventual failure can lead to frustration. Instead, set goals that are realistic with actionable steps you can take along the way and alter when required. For example, you can begin by starting one book and getting yourself into a regular routine of reading a few chapters every day before indulging in multiple books at the same time, which may cause you to not be able to focus properly.
A decline in motivation
Most resolutions are also bound by a lack of genuine commitment. They are made either impulsively because it is a trend to create New Year’s resolutions, or we face social pressure from the people around us. According to a Forbes poll conducted in 2023 only 44% of resolutions last two to three months with around 6% making it beyond a year. Without any real sort of motivation, we don’t tend to make it far and end up abandoning our resolutions. With motivation being an important factor, you should make sure that it is being provided for you at times when you feel that you are unable to cope. You can do this by setting goals and treating yourself at the end of each one to encourage yourself to stay motivated. For example, treating yourself to ice cream every time you finish reading a book.
There is no specificity
Our rash decisions also lead to a lack of specificity. Resolutions such as “I need to lose weight” or I need to “be healthier” are vague because they don’t target a specific issue or have any sort of actionable steps that we can follow to stay on track. Instead, try and plan your resolutions in detail by questioning how you are going to get to that point of change.
The realization of New Year’s resolutions being pointless is fast approaching as we make our way through the month of January. This is supported by the Baylor College of Medicine, which reported that 88% of people who set New Year’s resolutions fail before the end of January on what is called “Quitter’s Day.”
Overall, I strongly believe that there are various factors that come into play when we talk about New Year’s resolutions and whether they are useful to us or not. From an overwhelming amount of pressure to unrealistic expectations I feel that we end up succumbing to abandoning our resolutions. Therefore, instead of choosing a specific occasion to commit to resolutions we should be able to work on ourselves at any point of the year.
Ayzah Khan is a sophomore studying journalism and marketing.
