False New Year’s Resolutions

Although quite belated, I feel it necessary to talk about this idea of a “New Year’s Resolution”.

Personally, I’ve never been one for New Year’s Resolutions. I find them really silly, since you’re using the idea of a “new year” to make goals you should have made long ago, i.e., At 11:59 P.M you’re your usual lazy self, but at 12:00 A.M you’re suddenly motivated to complete all of these newfound ambitions. I’m not saying that you can’t use a New Year as a motivator for yourself, you do you, but I feel that it doesn’t trigger enough of a spark to actually follow through with it. Statistics also prove that the success rate of a resolution is invariably low. It also points out that almost 50% of Americans make resolutions for the New Year, but only 8% actually succeed in their resolution. Quite a low ratio.

If the New Year’s Resolution statistics weren’t so bad, I wouldn’t be throwing all of this hate at it, but since it does it’s inevitable. There’s also that lame saying that goes, “New Year, New Me” that literally makes me cringe every time. Like I stated before, one minute between one year to another does not produce a new you. Unless they’re implying that throughout the year they will undergo the change than the phrase will and always will be false. Then again, changing yourself for the New Year would also count as a New Year’s Resolution wouldn’t it? And we know how those always end up.

Now if you’re looking for real motivation for your goals, I suggest not including a “New Year” as one of your motivators. I’m no professional in finding motivation to do things, but I think the #1 thing to do is to get started.

There’s such a thing known as the Zeigarnik Effect, which is a construct of our mind that compels us to finish tasks we already started. Naturally, when we are assigned long term projects, our minds visualize the hard work we have to go through to finish it. Instead, we try to simulate it by doing mindless tasks, otherwise known as procrastinating. However, the Zeigarnik Effect shows that when we don’t finish a task we already started, we experience discomfort and intrusive thoughts about it. (ASAP Science Video explaining the “Science of Productivity”)

Although the Zeigarnik Effect somewhat contradicts my point about New Year’s Resolutions being pointless, the statistics I sourced in the beginning of the blog still proves my reason. The amount of resolutions maintained through the first week (75%) decreases as time intervals arrive. (6th Month, 46% maintained)

Despite my rant on New Year Resolutions, I suppose you can say I made a couple goals for myself in this coming year. Most of which are relatively small goals compared to many of the common “big” ones like going to the gym or spending less money and saving more. I personally hope to expand my outlook on various things such as music, sports, politics, people, etc. I feel like I’ve had tunnel vision on these topics for a very long time and I’m quite confident I can easily accomplish a task like this throughout the year.