The new year has just begun, and as people across the globe celebrate the beginning of 2025, lists of “New Year’s resolutions” are already being made. These resolutions consist of personal goals that a person would like to achieve within the new year and often vary among individuals. People make these resolutions with the good intention of accomplishing all of their goals; however, most people stay committed for only a brief period of time — thus, the importance of setting specific and feasible goals is crucial.
Even though around half of Americans make New Year’s resolutions, a considerable 75 percent of people drop their resolutions after thirty days, and only ten percent of people actually make it through the year with their goals. These statistics stem from a variety of reasons, but there are useful tactics to address them. People typically make their resolutions too vague, and it’s always hard to achieve goals when they lack specificity. For example, one of my own resolutions a few years back was to “practice my instrument every day” because I’m an avid musician. However, I found that even after just a month, practicing every day was starting to become a struggle, so I ended up giving up that resolution rather quickly. A better way to state that goal would have been to say, “I will practice at least thirty minutes right after school ends.” This revised goal provides more details about my goal, and this would’ve helped me align my desire to practice consistently to my everyday routine. Another important aspect to consider is the fact that as humans, around 40 percent of what we do every day is out of habit. This means that we often don’t spend a lot of time thinking about our daily actions because they are ingrained into familiar routines. By turning our new year’s resolutions into habits of everyday life, they will become much more manageable for the average person.
A common misconception behind resolutions is that with grit, progress happens rapidly and in major strides. This idea makes people discouraged when they suddenly notice a lowered amount of motivation on a given day, which often leads to people giving up their resolutions. It’s important to understand that rejuvenating motivation can’t last forever, so instead of viewing an everyday effort as something that can be completed quickly in large loads, people need to start putting in effort consistently, which can come from making small changes like tracking progress in a journal for example, for the best results by the end of the year.
A resolution that I made for myself this year is “I will read a book for at least ten minutes after I wake up in the mornings.” I’ve been doing well with keeping up my reading goal every morning, and I set a stopwatch, so I can see exactly how much I read in one morning. The specificity of the goal has helped me stick with the resolution every single day, and I’m confident in maintaining the daily reading routine for the rest of the year.
These resolutions help immensely with self growth while taking in important skills such as self-awareness and discipline. That is why before leaving behind important goals or aspirations, consider changes in your resolutions to make them clearer and more manageable while developing the correct mindset. 2025 can be looked back on as the year of great success for everyone’s goals as long as we stay dedicated to the manageable resolutions while working with the right outlook on accomplishing them.
