Do New Year’s Resolutions Really Work?

By: Lily Mendes

Being in a New Year allows individuals to create hopes and dreams about the future of somehow changing from the previous year. Entering 2020 has not been any different from all the other years, but people still aspire to accomplish all of their goals because they have a so called “fresh” start.

Now do these individuals accomplish these dreams? Is it really possible to become a better version of yourself simply because it is a new year?

Goal: the object of a person’s ambition or effort; an aim or desired result.

New Year’s resolutions consist of breaking bad habits or creating healthier ones. If your resolutions are similar to being healthier, quitting smoking, or spending more time with your family, these are all habits that you want to start in your life in order to potentially become a better version of yourself.

So what exactly is a habit?  Habits are automatic responses to everyday life, or in other words they are actions that you are conditioned to do everyday. You get up, go to school, do your homework, and then repeat the process the next day.

To create a new habit, you simply have to change your old habits, and in reality this isn’t that hard to accomplish. You right now have at least 50 habits either good or bad, and you probably don’t remember when or why they started, so how hard is it to start a new habit in the New year?

Resolution: a firm decision to do or not to do something.

Redwood’s Point of View

Resolutions are tricky things, because people tend to set too high of a goal, then they end up not accomplishing the goal at all.  Being healthier is too broad of a goal, you have to pick specific and small goals like, “I will walk my dog for 15 minutes everyday.” This can be accomplished a lot easier than simply trying to be healthier as a whole.

When talking to students around the Redwood Campus, I received a lot of resolutions that were similar, but the real question was if they were pursuing those resolutions.

Most resolutions consisted of bettering themselves in some way. For example, Aaron Hernandez ’21 explained to me that he wants to “better himself mentally and physically.” Now this seems like a pretty broad goal, however sometimes it just depends on the persons mentality towards their success.

If someone is fully determined in achieving their goal than they have a higher chance of sticking to it. As Devennie Rodriquez ’21 says, people that have the same resolution “every year” are the ones that “will most likely never fulfill their goal.” This is true, because this person has showed time over time that they are not committed.

So are New Year’s Resolutions possible? Yes and No. First of all, it depends on what type of goal or resolution a person has. They need to be specific and set small goals. When you have too broad of a resolution it is highly unlikely that it will follow through. Second, you need to have enough self motivation in order to have enough determination to fully commit yourself to pursuing your goal. If you’re not passionate about it, it will not happen.

The rest is up to you. Will you follow through?

Tags: new year, Redwood, redwood high school