Photo by Analyn Cuarto
Why the ‘New Year New Me’ mentality doesn’t work
By Katie Czenczek, Staff Writer
It’s that time of the year again. The Earth has managed to make another lap around the Sun, thus signifying a New Year has come once again. It is the time to get back into the swing of things after a hopefully relaxing break from school. It also happens to be the time where everyone decides they must make resolutions that are either impossible to accomplish or are far too many to keep track of causing anyone’s head to explode.
My gripe isn’t with setting goals. More, it’s when people choose to set goals.
Why wait until the New Year to start your resolutions? If you are currently unhappy with a bad habit of your’s in December, June, or March, why wait until the next year to start working on it? I know it’s hard to fathom, but I do think there is something to be said about all the memes featuring people failing their New Year’s resolutions for a reason—and we all know that memes never lie.
I’m not trying to be cruel or insensitive to people wanting to change a few things about their lives after some self-reflection. In fact, I think that self-reflection is a beautiful thing and we all tend to get so caught up in what we’re doing that we don’t even have time to reflect on whether or not it is making us happy or fulfilled. That’s exactly what allows us to create New Year’s resolutions in the first place: That weird gap in many of our lives where we have nothing really to do between the holidays and the New Year allows our minds to wander, and to finally question the things we do.
My problem with setting resolutions during this time is that they are made right before getting back to work and we tend to get a little carried away with the goals we set for themselves. As a result, your gym membership has already been a waste of money by the third week of January, causing you to feel like a total and utter failure for even trying.
We’ve all been there, where we’ve been super excited about a new change we’ve planned to better ourselves for the upcoming year… only to let ourselves down horribly the second the going gets tough. For me, it’s every single time I’ve said that I would stop my procrastination habit for the upcoming year. It’s so easy for me to make some grand promises of change and improvement when I don’t have to act on this change until the New Year. That’s why I have failed miserably every time. Or maybe it has more to do with my addiction to The Sims. I find nothing more thrilling than pretending to do my homework as a Sim rather than doing assignments as myself.
The failure isn’t in wanting to be a better person every year, it’s in the lack of action taken throughout the year to make those dreams become reality. It is easier said than done, but trust me when I say it is worth it. In fact, you might just find that the next time the New Year rolls around, you won’t have as many things you’d like to change about yourself.
