Resolved

It was almost time for me to give my English speech. We had to talk about something that impassioned us. Which is basically a bunch of sandwich meat telling us to not write about something stupid like, "I hate Donald Trump's hair because is is a bad representation of our country." Some girl actually tries to write about this, and that is when everyone had to get their topics approved by the teacher. When I went to show her mine, she just kind of gave me this look that said, really. But let me continue on, I think mostly for her amusement. My teacher called my name, indicating that it was time for me to give my speech. I walked up to the front of the class and began. 

"It’s that magical time of the year again – the time when people will spontaneously decide to make radical changes to their lifestyle only to realize that they’re too hard to keep up and as a result said plans inevitably collapse by the middle of the first month of the year.

I am, of course, talking about New Year’s Resolutions. 

We’re all familiar with the promises that we make ourselves come the 1st of January every year. We try to change our lives for the better, by trying to make an effort to eat healthier, go to the gym, improve grades, pay our bills on time, drink less, etc. It’s noble and definitely commendable, at least until the plans crash and burn, falling to the ground in tatters. But today, I’m here with a different take on New Year’s resolutions. Unlike the usual nonsense about New Year’s resolutions that you would hear around this time, I’m not going to tell you how to make your resolutions ‘better’ or give you some sort of schedule or support system in order for your resolutions to be maintained. I am going to pull a Luke Skywalker and tell you why New Year’s resolutions are unnecessary and in some cases, even demotivating and disheartening.

New Year resolutions are built on the principle that one has to improve their life in some shape or form. This includes making themselves better people or changing their lives in order to make living easier and better. However noble the goal might be, it all boils down to the execution—not the actual standard you set. For example, if your goal is to start going to the gym every day, it’s a great goal; nobody’s going to dispute that. But you have to take the time and effort to find a gym close to you and make adjustments in your schedule to accommodate for such a change.

My question is this: if changing your life is ultimately going to affect you and you alone positively, why wait until January first to put it into effect?

Wouldn’t it just be more effective to start right then and there, as soon as the idea occurs to you? Why would you want to wait until one particular day to see the idea through? After all, it’s the same effort that you’re putting in—why does the day matter so much? Of course, one could argue that starting on the first day of the year gives you a clean slate with which you can start anew and go on to reach your goals, but if you ask me, if you are really so determined so as to make changes to your lifestyle for the better, the positive effects of those changes should be all the motivation you need. It’s the promises that we make to ourselves to change our lives every day that really count for something—not the promises that we make on one particular day.

On that note, let’s talk about the resolutions themselves.

By now, the entire idea of making a resolution has become a trend to the point that it's satirized and made fun of, but there are those people who make a resolution with the intention of keeping it. Notice I said "intention," because what happens in most cases is that circumstances, work, and various other mitigating factors get in the way and thus we find ourselves abandoning the resolve to change our lives, instead choosing to wait until the next year to have at it one more time.

Why?

Wouldn’t it be so much simpler to set more realistic goals that are actually possible to do? Say for instance, smaller goals that would eventually build up to create a much better picture. If you want to lose weight, set your goals on a weekly basis with deadlines in order to give you better motivation to work on it. If you want to get better grades, create a weekly study plan. Short-term goals always work much better than long term ones for the simple reason that it works better as a motivating factor when you accomplish a small goal over and over again because you’ll want to keep doing it. If you set a big goal for yourself, you may end up collapsing under the weight of what you wanted to do and eventually not get anywhere close to the goal. It’s always better to be practical about your goals rather than have lofty ideals that can never be properly realized, because the feeling of not achieving your goals is horrible and it can seriously derail you.

A couple of years ago, I wanted to start writing fanfiction seriously, and made the resolve to publish 50 fanfictions by the end of the year on FanFiction.com. I started with gusto, but soon, college caught up with me and I realized that midway through the year, I had only written about four or five stories. Of course, I wrote a lot over the summer vacation, but when college started again, I found that I just didn’t have the time to update my stories as regularly as I wanted. It was then that I realized that maybe setting out to write 50 in one year was too much for me and that I should have made the number smaller so as to make it more realistic and achievable for me.

Please note that I am not belittling people’s resolve to get out there and make their lives better in the least. All I’m saying is that, I will not be participating in your tradition anymore., but instead set small goals through out the year." 

Everyone just kind of gave me this interesting look of, Okay stupid, whatever you say, but I was kind of okay with it because my English teacher was grinning, and that is the only time I ever have, and ever will see her smile.