When the glowing ball falls in Times Square and confetti lines the streets of New York City for days, a New Year has been sprung. The world turns bright, hopeful eyes to the possibilities of new beginnings.
When the clock strikes midnight, the time comes to uphold the time-worn tradition of the New Year’s resolution, man’s great second chance with a blank canvas or a fresh sheet of paper. The New Year is viewed as ample opportunity to complete goals that we just did not have enough time to finish in the previous year.
Those goals may be repeated, unresolved New Year’s resolutions. Most resolutions revolve around personal betterment. Some individuals will vow to go to the gym more. Others will quit smoking or cut back on the amount of sweets they eat.
Does anybody actually stay true to their pledges anymore? Are people declaring these vows of improvement out of mere habit? Careful observation of a close friend’s past resolutions may find you discovering similarities in what they resolve to do for the New Year. One year it is to lose weight, the next it is to exercise more and this year it is follow a strict diet.
To me, the tradition appears not to uphold a resolution, but to merely establish a resolution. A strange placebo effect – merely having the resolution will make it happen. Are we in that much denial that we feel better about ourselves by simply planning to better ourselves?
This leads me to think that the majority of New Year’s resolutions are made to simply make the individual feel better about themselves and their environment. No guarantee on whether the resolution is upheld. But people automatically feel better if they have a rough plan etched out in their mind.
A close personal friend, Kayleigh, made this excellent point: “The New Year isn’t anything drastically different from the old year. I don’t need a New Year to make new goals.”
This is why I no longer craft these resolutions. What makes the dawning of a New Year so special that it sparks people to change their lives? It’s as if to say that the middle of the spring is not good enough to finish the novel you started months ago.
As a nation, we love traditions. We have a tried and true tradition for just about every holiday under sun. We celebrate our gluttony on Thanksgiving. We celebrate our greed on Christmas. And on Fourth of July, it is completely legal to set off a bunch of explosives and watch the sparks fly. What better way to clean ourselves up for a new year of debaucheries and materialistic traditions than with a self-improvement resolution?
That is what the New Year is really all about, though, bettering yourself like you have been trying to do your whole life.
My dear friend Erin clings to these superficial resolutions. She vows to tan more and work out like it is her job.
There is nothing wrong with wanting a little self-improvement, but as Kayleigh said to me, what makes the New Year so special? Everyone, including my friend Lauren, is talking about “upgrading.” Are these actual resolutions, or are they wishful dreams for an uncharted year?
Good luck to those individuals who still make vows and pledges about their new year. I hope you succeed in fulfilling your resolution. I believe I have yet to see one through.
The hardest part is actually maintaining a resolution and seeing it through. If everyone were able to develop and maintain successful New Year’s resolutions, the world may be completely different. There is a lot of personal gain and discovery to be obtained from upholding a New Year’s resolution, not to mention the personal triumph of seeing something through.
So whether you resolve out of habit, resolve to make serious life changes or do not resolve at all, the New Year still comes and it is bound to be chock full of surprises.
