New Year Resolutions: Stick or Stuck
English teacher Leslie Lloyd had her students write down their resolutions for the new year. She encourages her students to make smaller goals and then work up to their overall goal to help them achieve their resolution. “If you want something, it is great if you hope for it, but you have to work for it. If you don’t constantly remind yourself then it is not actually going to change,” said Lloyd.
New year, new me.
It’s the start of a new year and people are setting their new year’s resolutions.
People make resolutions, or goals, to improve themselves and their life. However, some people do not believe in setting resolutions due to the commonality of not sticking to them. For others, they found different techniques to help them accomplish their goals.
Over 400,000 years ago, the ancient Babylonians were believed to be the first people to make New Year Resolutions, while also being the first recorded group of people who held celebrations of a new year, which was the season when their crops were planted. The Babylonians’ tradition of resolutions is still practiced in today’s time all over the world.
Resolutions are a way to set goals and to make the decision to have personal growth or to break a bad habit. However, 80% of people who set resolutions tend to fail their goals, according to Inc.com. Senior Taylor Clemens does not set resolutions for that exact reason. “I don’t do new years resolutions because I never follow through with them. I always feel like I have to make my goal something really far fetched or dramatic for it to be a new year’s resolution. Often the goal is so big I never see it out because my goal is simply too hard to obtain. Either that or I’m too impatient to see the end of the goal at the end of the year,” said Clemens.
For english teacher Leslie Lloyd, she has been completing her resolutions for many years now. After trial and error, she has found that if you set smaller goals and work up to a larger goal, it is easier to complete your resolution. “Start small and start with things that you feel are achievable. If you make a mistake, don’t beat yourself up about it because you either stay where you are or you make the choice to move further,” said Lloyd.
Last year, Lloyd’s main resolution was to make it to “The Workout,” a horse show national academy finale. She focused on something different each month. With this strategy, she was able to make it into the competition, competing against hundreds of people.
