It's almost that time of year again, when your friends and family will be asking you what your New Year's resolutions are. And as always, it will probably be something like "get fit" or "be more organized" or "be more on time". And that will work out great until the third week of January when you "have too much work to go to the gym" or "are too busy to stay organized" or "can be late just this once". So this year, I'm doing something revolutionary: I'm declaring myself free of New Year's resolutions.
Does this make me a bad person? Well, I hope not. Does this mean that I'm not committed to self-improvement? Of course not (though I am pretty awesome already if I do say so myself). But I think that New Year's resolutions put an unnecessary, random start time on something that doesn't need one. If you really do want to get healthier or have better time management, then why wait until New Year's to start?
You've already identified the issue, so what's stopping you? To me, it seems like New Year's day becomes a sort of a deadline; feel free to be as unhealthy or late as you want until December 31st, because you're going to do better starting in the New Year. If what you want to change really is something that is important to you, then you shouldn't need to wait for some arbitrary day to start.
"But wait," you might think. "New Year's is a time of rebirth and renewal!" And yes, you're right. New Year's seems to hold this cultural significance as a time when we get to start over. But think to yourself, how often have you heard of a New Year's resolution leading to some sort of long term behavioral change? Because while New Year's day might be a cultural phenomenon, so is the dropping of New Year's resolutions. It is widely accepted that New Year's resolutions don't really last past February, and if you go into it with that mindset, even subconsciously, then you're already setting yourself up for failure.
Now of course I don't think that people shouldn't try to better themselves. But self-improvement isn't something that should happen because of pressure to follow some arbitrary cultural norm.
Furthermore, you should try to pick something that you realistically can do without going too much out of your way: it's better to set and accomplish many small goals than one large one. A resolution shouldn't be waking up on January 1st and deciding that you're going to make some huge lifestyle change. It's waking up everyday and living consciously and thoughtfully, trying to be a better student, person, or friend.
