“New year, new me” and “I don’t feel like it, I’ll start tomorrow” are just examples of things that we are hearing people say at this time of the year due to the popular idea of New Year’s resolutions. New Year’s resolutions are goals that many people make right before the start of the New Year. These resolutions can be anything from starting a diet in an attempt to lose weight, to quitting a bad habit. But how often do people stay motivated and actually stick with their resolution?

“My opinion on New Year’s resolutions is that they are overrated. They are just like any other goals people make throughout the year,” Freshman Rachel Decesaris said.

I’ve found that people don’t stick to their New Year’s resolutions more often than people do stick to their New Year’s resolutions. Tons of people are guilty of this every single year. So why is it that people talk their resolutions up, but lose the motivation and the interest to stick with it by the second week of January?

“I think most people give up on their resolutions. It’s easy to go back to old habits. And besides, that donut looks delicious. One bite won’t hurt,” Junior Louis Dubovi said.

People feel pressured to jump on the bandwagon of coming up with a New Year’s resolution and come up with something off the top of their head. These things they come up with are often generic resolutions that millions of people choose every year. Therefore, these goals or resolutions that they come up with most times don’t have any importance to them or suit their lifestyle.

“It feels good to dream about how good you could become, but dreaming doesn’t get you anywhere; actions do,” Dubovi said.

It seems as if people who don’t choose the New Year as an excuse to make a change in their lives or drop an old bad habit are the ones who actually stick with their goals. For example, people who truly want to lose weight take the initiative to make the decision and work hard to lose the weight at any time of the year unlike some who don’t even make it to the second week of their resolution.The kind of people who truly wish to make a major change in their life put more thought into it throughout the year at any time, not just at the end of December and the beginning of January at the new year.

In some rare cases, there are people who actually do stick to their resolutions and make a substantial change in their life. These are also people who truly do wish to make a much needed or wanted change in their life. They make an effort to change their daily routine and make a habit out of it to benefit them.

New Year’s resolutions aren’t a bad thing, and they don’t harm anything. But they have become overrated over the years due to the way many people treat them. It’s a great thing if you want to change something that’s negative about your life, but if you’re just going to work on it for the first week or two of January and not all year round, then your New Year’s resolution has zero benefit to you. In saying that, if you make a New Year’s resolution, don’t be that person that loses motivation and gives up two weeks in. Making a big and positive change in your life that will only benefit you.