Resolution Pollution: Making resolutions shouldn’t wait till the New Year

“5…4…3…2…1…HAPPY NEW YEAR!” 

My friend immediately whispered to me, “You must hold me accountable to my goal of working out for 30 minutes each day”. Yet little did she know my goal of working out each day wasn’t a resolution for the New Year, but a goal that I had already set long before then.

Setting goals and wanting to achieve things is important all throughout life, but I don’t think it’s necessary to set unrealistic goals that’ll make you feel useless if they aren’t accomplished. At the prime age of eight my number one New Year’s resolution was to bring my soccer skills to another level and one day play in the women’s World Cup — while that’s possible, it was very unrealistic, and even more unrealistic for me now.

Making New Year’s resolutions has been a popular method for people to make changes in their lives, ranging from cutting out dairy from your diet to getting a 4.0 in school. People push things off, waiting for a new year to wipe the slate clean from last year’s old habits. I often hear “yeah I’ll do that in January” or “I’ll start on the first” — but there is no valid reason to wait for self-improvement until Jan. 1.

Though we all experienced growth in 2020, as the year came to a close, I knew I still wanted to improve myself — consistently working out, eating less fast food, better time management, and even keeping my room clean. 

These are all things I want to do this year, but not just because the ball dropped in New York City or because I could finally flip to the January page in the calendar — I want to do this for myself. So instead of pushing back everything you need or want to do until the first day of the brand new year, just start whenever you are ready. There’s no need to apply such pressure to one single day. 

Sure, maybe you go a couple weeks with these resolutions — working out every day, choosing the salad over the Sonic stop, putting maximum effort into homework assignments — but then they fall through due to laziness, stress or just feeling like those goals aren’t doing anything for you. You’re left dismayed by the lack of life-shattering results, and let your dreams fall to the back-burner where you’ll inevitably revisit them next new year, and repeat the same cycle.

Feeling like you failed your mission can be discouraging, sending you into a spiral of not wanting to improve or change anything at all. According to Inc.com, approximately 80% of people who make New Year’s resolutions have dropped them by the second week of February. 

Already feeling down and burnt out is a negative to your mental health, but the winter season further complicates things as many suffer from seasonal depression. According to the Mayo Clinic, Seasonal depression is caused by a change in the season and makes your energy plummet. This gives just another reason to push back those goals and get nothing done, once again disappointing yourself. 

It’s understandable that when a year as tumultuous as 2020 ends, people will look to the new year with hope and as a time for change. But the pressure we put on ourselves to create a perfect life only allows stress to pile up. And after failing to complete that one thing you set your mind to, those high expectations of this being “your year” will come crashing down — but you have to remember completing those resolutions doesn’t dictate how your year is going to go, you do.

I’m all about goals and staying motivated, and I don’t necessarily hate New Year’s resolutions, but they can become very unrealistic and make the start of a new year even tougher mentally if they don’t work out as planned.

I hear those around me committing to losing weight or eating healthy at the beginning of the year, but often don’t realize when the mentality becomes too consuming. Some goals can create a sense of tunnel vision of wanting that goal to be completed immediately, becoming a toxic thought — especially with resolutions involving working out and food. 

A study from Chron.com also showed that when setting aggressive goals that end up failing continuously, performance can actually decline. If you push yourself too quickly, you’re bound to give up, so just take those small goals a day at a time. And if you don’t feel like running on the treadmill or skipping the Chipotle stop, don’t beat yourself up about one cheat day.

New Year’s resolutions don’t need to be a dramatic shift in your life, but setting small, daily goals that you actually want to do can help you feel accomplished. I make my bed first thing when I wake up to feel that sense of productivity as early as possible, and it helps me not get back in bed and actually start my day. It’s a simple daily task, but it encourages me throughout the rest of the day.

Another way you can do this is focusing more on self-care or helping others — working on getting a full eight hours of sleep, spending at least 30 minutes outside every day, volunteering every week or month or even creating a gratitude journal.

While these little goals aren’t necessarily going to change your appearance or help you out with a workout routine, they’re examples of small things you can do to create a kind of to-do list and feel accomplished in a healthy way. And if your long-term goal is to be healthy, set little goals like going for a walk or eating a salad every once in a while — without the unrealistic pressure of a major lifestyle change, you’re much more likely to succeed and start 2021, or any day, off on a great note.