Less than 8% of people follow through with their New Year’s resolutions according to UAB Medicine. Most people are pressured into believing they must create a goal for themselves. The pressure placed upon people can lead to anxiety and depression. Setting a goal at the beginning of the year can be difficult for one of two reasons: they are too big or they lack time and patience. On average, it only takes one to six weeks for most to give up their resolutions. 

When a goal is set at the beginning of the year, most start off with a self-evaluation and find what they want to change. They find discouraging reasons. Let’s say someone’s goal is to lose weight, they would start pondering on questions that downgrade their bodies and self-esteem:

• Am I eating too much?
• How many pounds do I need to lose?
• When should I go to the gym?
• What do I need to give up?
• What is the reason I should lose weight?
• Do I need to lose weight?

Many tend to talk themselves out of achieving their resolution because they know it will be an arduous journey. As humans, we like when we do something and we get an immediate reward. When we don’t get the reward right away we tend to give up on it. The short-term gratification is what many Americans love. You get an immediate reward. However, it tends to wear off fast. Whereas long-term gratification takes more patience, in the end, you get a longer-lasting reward.

Working on long-term gratification can be difficult. However, if you are determined enough to achieve your new year’s resolution, there are a few steps to help you achieve your goal. A Quakertown teacher explains how “resolutions help people take time to reflect on the past, present, and future and think of changes they can make to make their life better… It’s just a matter of sticking to it”. While this can be true more often than not people tend to do more judging than reflecting. That is why it is important to know how to properly attain your goal.

Following through with a resolution means that healthy steps were followed. A few examples of healthy steps to follow would be:

1. It has to be Reasonable – Make a goal that is achievable. Know that you might fail at first and that it takes time. Your goals might be slow-moving and that’s okay. 
2. A timeline must be created – Give yourself a timeline in which you want to complete your goal. The timeline helps keep you a little more in check. You can create your timeline by doing a start and end date. You could do it by month. Even just checking in every week or so.
3. Notice the progress – Acknowledge that nothing changes overnight. You have to be patient with yourself. Keep a log of all your improvements and how you are feeling along your journey.  
4. Allow for flexibility – Life happens. You can’t always control what goes on in your life. You have to accept what comes across your path. It’s okay to have ups and downs. Make sure you just try again the following day or week.

When creating a plan for yourself make sure to want to not feel forced to do it. Making sure you know exactly why you want what you want is key. Going into a goal without knowing why can lead people can’t figure out why it is important to them, so they give up on it. 

The “New year, new me” saying is one that tends to be passed around during the New Year. Quakertown Student Mya Hibsman believes the quote should be “New year, Better me”. She doesn’t enjoy the “new me” part of the saying. Feeling like you should change yourself is not what she wants to do. Bettering herself is how she goes about making goals for herself. She believes saying “better me” makes people feel relaxed. They should improve, not completely change. The problem with “New year, new me” is that the quote is telling you to change you. Make setting resolutions feel too forced. Nowadays when you hear “New year, new me” it almost feels like it has a negative connotation. Almost as if it’s a pain. That’s because it is. It suggests someone should change themselves. Changing oneself completely is not effective. Looking to improve should be the main focus. New year’s resolutions need to focus on improvement rather than discouragement.