With the start of each year, many people decide on their New Year’s resolutions. A new year is thought to represent a fresh start and lead to a new, improved person through personal goal-setting. These goals are meant to alter people’s lives in a positive way. The intent of a New Year’s resolution is seemingly good, because it’s a great thing to improve upon oneself or one’s life. However, what is it about a new calendar year that is supposed to motivate people to make drastic life changes? Is a new year really enough of an incentive to fuel our desire to improve?
I am a huge advocate of improving what you want to change about yourself and your life. If there is something you are unsatisfied with, by all means change it. Change because you are unsatisfied and willing to make a real adjustment. Don’t change simply for a new year on the calendar. Don’t change because everyone around you is making similar resolutions and you now think you have the drive to do the same. Change because you genuinely want to do so, not for another empty goal that everyone decides to make. If you really need the motivation of a new year and of your peers setting goals alongside of you, then you probably are not ready to make a real change.
New Year’s resolutions are hollow attempts to achieve what you want to do. They are nothing more than an illusion of a reality that is unattainable without true motivation. Between Dec. 31, 2015 and Jan. 1, 2016, no power within you is going to suddenly manifest itself and make you want to achieve something great. If life worked that way, we would all be perfect people, but we’re not; we are all flawed, and we cannot strive to change our flaws overnight. A new year is nothing more than a different number to write down when signing documents or writing papers. It is not necessarily a fresh start, nor a real reason to make a change. It will not magically motivate you to be the best person you can possibly be. The only thing that can motivate you to do that is yourself. You have to want to change and have the means to do so, and those means are not handed to you just because it is the first day of the year. Change for your own satisfaction, and do so when you are willing and able to. Don’t fall victim to the pressure of everyone else’s empty New Year’s resolutions, because unless you have the drive and ability to achieve your resolution, the goal you’ve always wanted to achieve will do nothing but leave you feeling discouraged. Contrary to popular belief, a new year does not give rise to a new and improved person. You have the power to change who you are; a calendar does not.
