The year comes to an end, and new beginnings are on the horizon as the countdown shifts from hours to minutes to seconds. 5… 4… 3… 2… 1… The new year is ushered in as fireworks light the sky. Everyone is filled with vigor and hope, eager to make this year “their year.” New Year’s resolutions will be put to the test, and after the rush of excitement settles, it’s hard to believe they won’t be successful this time, unlike last year and the year before that.
How many resolutions have been taken from last year’s list? How much of that old list was even actually completed? The new year stirs strong desires of self-improvement and brings about a willingness to change everything even slightly wrong with life. Fitness goals, new hobbies and all sorts of self-reflection-based resolutions are set. Just as soon as these hopes are piled into a list, they’re suddenly left behind. Why make New Year’s resolutions to begin with?
There is nothing wrong with the idea of setting these means of self-improvement, but it’s important to understand that these are goals and should be approached as such. According to Time Magazine, 8% of Americans stay true to their resolutions for the entire year. The issue is that many people treat their New Year’s resolutions as a checklist to run through, which is why they don’t end up as effective as they’d hoped it would be. Sometimes, people set resolutions just for the sake of doing so, which makes them even less likely to work on them. Resolutions that are set without purpose or without a proper plan are the ones that are abandoned sooner, mostly two to three months into the year, because it’s hard to keep up with things that don’t mean anything to you or just seem like too much to handle.
When setting goals, it’s not just about reaching the end result. It’s about breaking it down into smaller everyday steps that are more easily attainable and that amount to something bigger over time. So how can New Year’s resolutions be more effective? Like with setting any major goal, it’s necessary to create a plan that can be followed easily and be aware of potential factors that might get in the way of accomplishing these smaller tasks.
This is where something that’s taught in school comes in: SMART goals. The “S” stands for specific. If a goal is vague and lacks clear boundaries to reach, it might seem too overwhelming and, therefore, unattainable. The “M” stands for measurable, which means a goal needs to be trackable in some way to measure and, hopefully, succeed. The “A” is a major one when it comes to setting New Year’s resolutions because it represents attainability. This is where a lot of resolutions fail. They’re so vast and out of reach; success isn’t realistic if the goal itself isn’t. The “R” stands for relevance, which ties into the idea of setting resolutions with a reason. It needs to be important, or else there will be no motivation to achieve the goal that’s been set. The “R” can also mean realistic, which, again, ties into being attainable. Finally, the “T” is for time. Any goal or resolution needs to be set with being aware of how much time it’ll take, both on a long-term level and when making smaller steps toward achieving it. An example is allotting time for an assignment that will take longer than usual ones, rather than procrastinating and mushing in a bunch of time at once at the last minute.
Following the SMART acronym for setting any kind of goal helps to make sure it’s a realistic one that can be accomplished in a given amount of time, no matter how time-consuming or hard it is. If the goal is specific enough, measurable in order to track progress, attainable in the sense that it’s realistic on a personal level, relevant to what’s actually desired and timely, then it’s a good goal that won’t fail like New Year’s resolutions typically end up doing.
Personally, I do not set any New Year’s resolutions. I find that telling myself I’m going to do something doesn’t exactly make it work since there’s more effort required than that. I believe that resolutions and self-reflections are a year-round effort, not one that peaks between the months of January and March. We can never tell where life takes us, and living in the moment allows us to learn from small everyday experiences, which is a sign of growth in itself. Different perspectives we face all the time teach us a lot about ourselves, as well as about the world around us. Setting goals doesn’t require a special time to do so, and a new year can sometimes just mean carrying who you currently are into the next year. Mindset is the most important part, whether resolutions are set or not.
Change isn’t always intentionally necessary. We are always changing, whether it be because of something new you read, a new song you listened to or even a new friend who’s entered your life. What matters most is perspective and how you view personal growth.
Haniyyah Usmani, FCRH ’27, is undecided from Bronx, N.Y.
