Forget New Year’s resolutions, look for long term solutions. 2025 has begun, and as the New Year starts, people hopeful for the year write down a list of the many ways that they want to become the best versions of themselves. Then they give up. New Year’s Resolutions aren’t worth your time.
New Year’s resolutions originated in 3000 B.C., as a Babylonian festival to celebrate the farming season. Oftentimes, it was when farmers would pay off their debts or return borrowed equipment. Romans also carried on this tradition, where they sought forgiveness for past wrongs, and made resolutions to improve themselves.
Today, if you look at some of the resolutions made, these once simple tasks have been blown completely out of proportion. People make a list of countless things they want to improve about themselves, making a once celebratory practice turn into a recipe for failure.
It is tempting to reach for unattainable goals, but in the end these get tossed out, which leads to disappointment. Setting unrealistic goals severely diminishes self-esteem and confidence. Also, most goals set on New Year’s Day don’t stick. According to a 2023 poll done by Forbes Health, “under 1 in 10 people (8%) said their resolutions lasted a month, 21.9% reported two months, 22.2% reported three months and 13.1% said their resolutions lasted four months. Only 1% said they lasted for 11 or 12 months.”
Sophomore Liliya Pyk said, “Every year I try a New Years resolution to make my bed and clean my room everyday, but it always ends up lasting 3 days .” The all-or-nothing attitude of new year’s resolutions makes them difficult to carry on with. Also, the construct of them puts pressure and uncertainty on people leading to falure. Clinical Psychotherapist Amy Morin said “Ive seen countless clients set resolutions, and then grow discouraged when they can’t keep them.”
Instead, start by cultivating new habits, and don’t be hard on yourself if you can’t follow through. Habit building will provide better results than resolutions. For example, someone may make a New Year’s resolution to stop eating a lot of sugar. The first time they break that resolution, they feel that they have failed, and stop pursuing the resolution. This usually happens quickly, and many New Year’s resolutions fail after a month or so. By building habits, people can still achieve the same goals, in a less drastic way. For instance, they could start by cutting out a sugary type of food, or small amounts of sugar and gradually reduce their levels. This way, if they make a mistake and fall back, they can continue and work towards their goal. In the same way, if someone tried to start a New Year’s resolution like exercising everyday, they may give up if they don’t excercise one day. By adding workouts in moderation, this would build a habit.
Also, people should be doing things that benefit them all year long, and stop waiting for a certain night to begin self improvement. It is natural to long to be a better person, and want the most for your future self. However, humans see their future selves as someone completely different from the person that they are now, and think that they can handle more in the future. This leads to unattainable goals.
By procrastinating to start goals on a specific date, it is easy to lose sight of the purpose of the goal, and not see the goals as long term tasks.
To better your life this year, and for years to come, start small. Remember that high expectations in many cases can lead to disappointment. The stress and anxiety that comes with unrealistic expectations isn’t something to bring to 2025.
