My 2018 New Year’s Resolutions:

1. Eat healthy
2. Work out more
3. Organize my life
4. Get better grades
5. Learn a new language
6. Make 2018 the best year yet!

Sound familiar? Yeah, that’s probably because it’s just about the same list as half of the country, give or take a few resolutions. And who knows…maybe it’s the same as your list too. It’s a new year, so why not try to better yourself? As people like to say, new year new me…right?

Today, I decided that there was no better way to start the ~New Year~ than with a blog post explaining why I absolutely hate (yes, hate) New Year’s Resolutions.

You might be asking, what’s prompting me to write this post? Well, you see, earlier this week I went to the gym, as I have every week last semester, except this time, something was different. It. Was. PACKED. Like so packed that people were waiting in line just to get in. At first I was confused, but then I remembered what was causing this mayhem: it’s a new year, and with a new year comes New Year’s resolutions.

For as long as I can remember, I personally have never really liked or believed in setting New Year’s resolutions. Even though I am a huge fan of goal-setting and bettering oneself, for some reason the idea of New Year’s resolutions has always just rubbed me the wrong way. My reasoning behind it is this: I think if there is something you really want to change about yourself, you should start right away rather than waiting for the new year. But clearly that does not seem to be a popular opinion because everyone still makes their resolutions year after year after year after year.

Of course resolutions actually do work sometimes, otherwise nobody would even waste their time with them, but how often do people actually succeed in accomplishing their New Year’s resolutions? I wouldn’t be so opposed to resolutions if they were actually proven to have a better success rate, however I can see with my very own eyes how that is not the case. Just seeing the difference between the amount of people at the gym in the beginning of the week to the end was all the proof I needed. Just 10 days into the new year, people are giving up on their goals for the year to come.

I really want to stress that it’s not that I don’t think New Year’s resolutions ever work, because I really do give major props to the people who truly do stick to their goals they set for the New Year. It’s just that people give up so easily because there is so much pressure surrounding a new year that has to be “perfect”. Let me break it down for you: let’s say someone who had vowed to eat healthier in the new year indulged in some fast food for one meal in the beginning of January. There are so many people that just give up entirely because they think that by caving once that they have failed. But here’s where the real problem comes in…instead of trying to continue with this goal of eating healthy despite a small bump in the road, many people just ditch the idea completely and say “oh well, next year will really be my year to eat healthy”.

I argue this: Why do you have to sit around and wait for another year to come? Time doesn’t stop for anybody! We need to seize the moment and if there’s something we want to change, we can change it whenever we please. Carpe Diem!