New Year's Resolutions: Why I Don't Make Them

So many people have asked me what plans I've made for the new year, what resolutions I've made. What I don't generally explain to them (due to time constraints, lack of caring, or just knowing that they will never understand the choice) is that I no longer make “resolutions.”

To me, New Year's Resolutions have always been (and will continue to be) goals people set that they want to achieve in the coming year. Goals they stick to for a few weeks, a few months if they're driven and really lucky, and then they forget about them, or don't care enough to follow through with them. I'm surrounded by people who have always set weight-loss resolutions, or healthy eating resolutions, exercising, good grades, relationship improvement... You name it, I could probably think up someone I've heard of who has made it their year's goal to do it.

And they failed. I do not recall a single person around me that has ever said, “Hey, guys! I accomplished my New Year's Resolution this year!”

And that whole group and description includes myself. I set goals each year to drop weight, eat healthier, do better in school, write more, finish writing a novel, improve my relationship with my sister. And I failed at every single one of them for the last 8 years (which is how long I can remember making the same resolutions).

It's an unhealthy habit, so I've quit.

From now on, anything that is deemed important enough that it is something I should be working towards, something I should be doing, it won't be wished for. It won't be dreamed about, or hoped for, or made into a New Year's Resolution.

It will be done. It will be added to the list of long-term things that need to be done, that are (slowly) getting done. And it will be done.

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A taste if you're interested in reading about that list of long-term things that are getting done.

1. Bachelor's Degree and Graduating: If all goes according to plan (health-wise), I will graduate December 2014 with a Bachelor's in Communications concentrating in Journalism. Until I thought about it this morning, it's never truly felt like school will end or there will be a milestone in the constant schooling.

2. Living Arrangements and Master's Degree: I keep looking through lists of schools with good Graduate programs, as I'll be going nearly straight into a Master's program after graduating. I'll be taking as much of a vacation as I can without upsetting my financial aid, and whatnot, but it's a tightrope balancing act sometimes. One large looming need is to find living arrangements by the end of next year, or shortly thereafter. I've been itching to live on my own for a while now, and spend a few hours a week browsing the housing (and renting) market in Michigan, just looking for anything that could end up in my price range.

3. Writing: I'm constantly thinking about writing and trying to get back into writing fiction. I have a dozen story ideas lurking in the shadows of my computer, but never have enough time to get into the mindset of working on them. Instead of whining about it or wishing for more hours in the day, I'm working on time management skills, and training myself to wake up and go to bed at nearly the same time each day.