PROS

Once again, it’s time to make to make a yearlong commitment and start with a fresh approach. Although some may not agree that making New Year’s resolutions are a good thing, I think it’s important to do so for the following reasons:

Gets your priorities in order: Resolutions give students an opportunity to reflect on what’s important to them for the upcoming year. Whether it be losing weight, or getting to school on time, this is the perfect time to evaluate areas of your life that may need a little tuning up. It’s a great time to get your priorities in order.

Keeps you motivated: This goes along with getting your priorities in order. Now that you’re motivated to take care of priorities, you have a competitive edge on those who don’t make resolutions. It helps you to maintain your focus for the entire year. Think about it, it will be pretty cool to brag about completing a challenge for an entire year!

New beginnings: With a new year should come new beginnings. A fresh start is key to growth and getting through some of the most stressful days we have. No matter what troubles seem to come your way, resetting your mind and looking at situations in a different way can cheer you up and help things look better than they seem.

It’s the little things that count: Who said resolutions have to be hard or include big goals like losing 100 pounds? Resolutions can be simple as giving a compliment to a stranger everyday or picking up one piece of trash each day. Think about it: 25 little good things you do can outweigh that one big thing that may be bringing you down.

CONS

It’s getting close to Jan. 1, so, once again, it’s time to come up with a list of resolutions you know you will never complete. While some may find this tradition useful, I don’t understand the hype. Overall, setting goals isn’t a bad thing, but resolutions are different. Think about the reasons below:

They never work: New Years are meant to try something new. After all, it’s a new year. When you start listing goals you meant to complete several years ago, that should be an immediate warning. If you didn’t achieve the resolution last time, how are you going to make it work this time?

You’re not motivated enough: You think you have plenty of time to begin your goals because it’s still early. Then, all of a sudden half the year has passed, and you realize you haven’t done anything to achieve success. You decide to forget the goal for this year and wait until next year to give it another try.

Feeds into procrastination: If you typically wait until the last minute to get things done, resolutions may not be your thing. You’ll keep putting them off like the rest of your to-do list, and when the next year rolls around, you’ll be back at square one.

Too hard on yourself: When you don’t achieve your resolutions, it can backfire. You set unrealistic goals, so you punish yourself by thinking of what went wrong. Instead of focusing on the positive, you focus on the negative, and that creates a snowball effect that can lead to depression.

The bottom line is, If you want to change something about yourself, you will do it without the “excuse” of a new year. Being the best you is always a good thing, but you don’t need a silly resolution to make a positive change that can benefit your future.