New Year’s resolutions are often the final blow of the holiday season–after the anxiety students suffer over finals, spending an unspeakable amount of money on gifts, and getting through extensive family gatherings. You might find yourself feeling the societal obligation to make unattainable goals for the new year–but making and achieving your resolutions doesn’t have to be a chore.
Common resolutions such as working out or journaling often result in people spending money on a resolution that they don’t even really care about, whether it be on a gym membership or a daily journal. Because of this, it’s important to assess how achievable your goals are when making resolutions, and what steps you can take to make these goals easier on yourself.
Senior Nola Briar-Bonpane felt that making small changes to daily life could be a good way to approach resolving the problem.
“I think… little goals each day helps, instead of just like jumping straight into something,” Briar-Bonpane said.
When making resolutions at any time of year, it is important to consider how attainable your goals may be. While many common resolutions are long-term, it can be intimidating to think about achieving such a big goal, even if it’s a goal that you want to attain by the end of the year. It can, instead, be easier to approach smaller goals. Making a less time-consuming goal to work towards every day or every week can be more attainable, or even breaking up bigger goals into smaller steps can be incredibly helpful.
Junior Sofia Flores felt that it was important to make New Year’s resolutions, but that you have to think about how reachable they really are.
“I think New Year’s resolutions are important, I just think you gotta evaluate if you’re gonna stick to them or not,” Flores said. “You gotta be realistic.”
No matter how big or small, making a resolution is a great way to beckon in the New Year. Briar-Bonepane also spoke about how she thinks more people should be aware of the opportunity for a new start at the beginning of the new year.
“I think that, you know, a new year is just a great fresh start and people should just take advantage of that.”
