Why New Year’s Resolutions Are Bullshit

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The New Year is, and always has been, wrought with cliche. It is often stated that the night itself is overrated – you never really have as fun of a night as you set out to. However, resolutions and the “New Year, New Me” attitude is even more of a farce.

Think about it – have you ever met someone who set huge goals for the new year, and actually accomplished all of them? Has anyone ever become the image of fitness off of a resolution?

From December 31st to January 1st, is anyone a changed person? No.

Personally, I have always fallen victim to this phenomenon. I have always been someone who says the diet starts on Monday. This attitude is magnified in the New Year, the perfect time to glorify self help and projected changes. However, these resolutions are no different than the radical promises you make to yourself throughout the year. It’s so easy to think about a fabulous career, but much harder to make one.

The New Year is the easiest excuse to make empty promises, but here’s the thing – no one’s listening. People are wholeheartedly involved in their own new selves, and the empty promises you are making are to yourself.

While you are eating your ‘last’ meals and planning how 2017 is going to bring about a new, fit, fabulous you, life is happening. 

So how do we change? We just do. This year, instead of spending hours thinking about a slim, driven girl, with perfect grades and a semblance of a career, I resolve to look in the mirror. Instead of thinking about what my future could look like, I will focus on what today looks like. Instead of letting this year get away from me while I daydream about how it could be my year, I will make it my year.

When the last day of 2017 comes, the last thing I want to do is to be thinking about all the vices and faults I personified during the past year. How much more fulfilling of a life would it be if we took each day as an opportunity to prove to ourselves that our days are worthwhile, and spent the end of the year looking back on our accomplishments with pride? Our only resolution should be that on December 31st, we can say that we didn’t once hold back.