Why I Don’t Believe in New Years Resolutions

Every year from around the end of December to the middle of January, the gym becomes flooded with new members who are most likely attempting to satisfy their New Year’s resolution to become more healthy, fit, or skinny. And every year, as these individuals hog my favorite machines that I conquer year-round, I silently blaspheme them as I am forced to wander the gym and find machinery that is not being used—which, at this time of year, is rare to find. When this unavoidable craze returns annually and I hardly notice a soul in the gym, except the cute old man in khakis who always uses the treadmill across from me, I continually wonder why these individuals choose to wait until December to begin their fitness goals. Why start around New Year’s time? Why not just start?

There has to be a day where each of these individuals thinks something along the lines of I ought to start going to the gym. My question is, why don’t these individuals go to the gym on the day that this thought occurs to them, rather than waiting to use it as a New Years resolution? Why wait until a new year is about to begin, rather than just start the same day?

The way I see it, every day is a clean slate and a new beginning. Every day is a chance to improve and make yourself better than the day before. If there’s something you want to do or a goal you hope to achieve, I don’t see why you should limit yourself to using a new year as a gateway to doing so. When you have the ambition, go for it right away. You have the benefit of waking up each morning with infinite possibilities ahead of you.

It’s always this time of year when people start making their New Year’s resolutions and ask each other what they hope to achieve in the new year. For me, my answer is always the same: that I don’t believe in New Year’s resolutions.

By witnessing people in my life try to maintain their New Year’s resolutions, it seems to me that they usually fail. You put it off long enough that when the time comes you sort of lose motivation, or you mentally prepare yourself so much for when the new year arrives that you start off with a surge of enthusiasm that eventually comes to fade. The new faces that enter the gym towards the end of December are gone by the end of January.

Some days I realize that there’s something I need to change in my life, or something I need to improve in. On those days, I make a plan to tackle the goal, whatever it may be, and get to it right away. When you put something off or create a start date for yourself, I feel that it often doesn’t end up getting done the right way. We have the benefit of a new day every day that can go however you want it. I say cross New Year's resolutions off the list, and instead use each morning as a signifier of a new beginning where you can accomplish whatever you choose to. Don’t sell yourself short—New Year’s only comes once a year, and you’ve got 364 other days where you can improve.