About 4,000 years ago, one of this worlds longest standing traditions started: deciding a New Year’s resolution. This opportunity to better yourself comes around once a year, setting a goal to help yourself a little bit, by bit. You know yourself better than anyone else can and you are the only one who can decide who you become, progressing yourself by starting with one less flaw and bringing in a new year with a positive.
New years Resolutions can be seen as controversial since often times they end up unsuccessful. “I always though New Year’s resolutions were honestly pretty pointless. Reason being is that if I already have a goal in mind, it doesn’t change if it’s a new year’s resolution, a goal is a goal. Though I guess if I did manage to have one it would be trying to remember all of the events that have passed at the end of each day and what I’ve gained from them. I’ve always had a really bad memory so I honestly need to note things down and not waste my time in the day. I think this is a great way to hold myself accountable for my actions each and everyday and it helps me take a step into being a better person to not only myself, but to people around me too. I do like the fact that those resolutions are able to bring out goals that some people are too afraid to tackle on a regular basis,” Pakama Badjie said.
Though the goals may not exist just due to New Year’s coming, it can help launch you into the start of it. “My New Year’s resolutions is going to be to run 1000 miles throughout the course of the year. Typically my off-seasons between cross country and track don’t hold many miles so I’m gonna try to change that. I think New Year’s resolutions are good but are also more of an idea of directions as opposed to a hard set goal. I believe [they] aren’t often successful, but the important thing for them is to be headed in the right direction for self improvement. Rather than a number that you want to achieve, it’s the idea of getting closer to what will benefit you this next coming year that really counts,” Thomas Morrison said.
Strong opinions can form for, or against the Resolutions for a multitude of view points. “I don’t care for New Year’s Resolutions personally. I feel like [they’re] kind of dumb because it leads to people procrastinating goals because they just want to wait for a time where it’s ‘convenient,’ and then half the time giving up on it or forgetting about it in a month. I think [they] are generally unsuccessful because people make them, not out of actually wanting to achieve something, but because it’s what everyone else does so they might as well too, but because they don’t care they don’t keep up with it,” Kennedy Brewer said.