Canceling New Year’s Resolutions

by Brinley Janes, 12

When the time for a new year comes around, we tend to think about what we want to do better in the next year. We may want to work on our bodies by working out more or eating healthier. We may want to stop bad habits or just be more positive in the next year. Those things can be good when done right and with a positive mindset, but when we’re making new year’s resolutions, they tend to be deeply rooted in negative thoughts.

It’s human nature to want to do better, but when we set goals for ourselves derived from places of dislike and self-hatred, things are likely to end badly. At the start of the new year, you may feel a rush of motivation, but when things don’t pan out as you’d like, such resolutions can create intense feelings of decreased self-worth when they aren’t fulfilled. Resolutions that we can’t meet can feel like a stone hanging just above our heads out of reach. So when we don’t hold ourselves to the highest standards we set for ourselves, it can create anxiety.

This goes for all resolutions we set for ourselves, even if they are as simple as being more positive in the coming year. When we set out to be more positive, positivity feels like the only thing we should feel. So when we have hard times and feel down, those sad feelings are run over with the resolutions to be more positive, and thus we ignore our feelings.

Of course, no one sets out to fail, but the resolutions we set forth for ourselves are always more ambitious than they may seem, or we just have unrealistic expectations. We set dates to have so much progress by a certain time and not meeting those unrealistic expectations can cause damage to our self-esteem no matter the subject matter. When talking about weight loss and the expectations to lose so much weight by a certain time, not only can self-esteem be lowered by not making progress, but it often prompts people to lose weight in unhealthy ways to see more results.

Any way you look at it, resolutions may not be the route you want to take in the new year. It’s a wonderful thing to want to do better, but to do that we must set healthier goals. Making goals that are more attainable, specific, measurable, and don’t have as stressful of time contractions can be very helpful. It’s also important to remember that no matter what, every achievement counts, and you don’t have to set limitations on yourself but, rather, just work and live in the moment.