Are New Year’s resolutions worthwhile?

On the second last day of 2022, I riffled through my planner. There are many to-do lists, from the tasks to be completed in one morning to the monthly goals. The yearly one is on the first page, and here are my New Year’s resolutions in 2022. 

1. Eat properly
2. Maintain regular weight and periods
3. Improve English 
4. Get an internship 
5. Learn video-editing 

The first two are interrelated. I have been underweight for about three years. It leads to health problems like missing periods, and the weight-gain diet brings me immense pressure. The huge change of environment and stress from studying have exacerbated my physical and mental issues since I started my university studies in October 2021, so I was determined to fix them in 2022. Yet, I failed. I am still underweight and sometimes nervous about not eating enough. They are going to be my New Year’s resolutions again in 2023.

New Year’s resolutions are an important motivation for self-reflection and an invitation for self-reflection

What about my English? I can read English books much faster, and there are significantly fewer language errors in my essays. Although I cannot read, write, and speak like a native, I think I have ameliorated a lot. I will confidently give it a tick, but I will still put it on my checklist for 2023. I can and I need to do better.

New Year’s resolutions are set with great optimism because we cannot predict what will happen at that moment. Our success in actualising them means that we can achieve something impossible, which encourages us to push our limits in the future. However, nobody is perfect, and it is normal that we fail to make our New Year’s resolutions come true. When we review the unachieved resolutions at the end of the year, the gap between expectation and reality reminds us how much we should improve. Regardless of the outcome, New Year’s resolutions are an important motivation for self-reflection and an invitation for self-reflection. 

Thus, whether we stick to the resolutions or not, they do not indicate our success or failure. 

Let’s continue with my checklist. When I wrote down the goal of getting an internship, I did not expect that I could achieve it as I thought I was not outstanding enough. I not only got an internship opportunity in an independent bookstore, but I also enjoyed it a lot. This experience was a critical juncture for me because it helped me explore my career aspirations from it. I am clear that I want to pursue a career in writing and publishing now. It is absolutely an unexpected reward as I just wanted an internship experience to make my resume look better at first.

It is probably the reason why I did not keep up with the last resolution. If someone asked me what I wanted to do in the future, I would give a vague answer of ‘something about media’. In the first half of 2022, I knew that I love writing, reading, and watching films, but I did not know which one I liked the most. Thus, I planned to learn video editing in order to be a bit closer to the enormous field of ‘media’. I understood that film production is not my greatest interest after the internship, so I decided to put effort into improving my writing rather than video editing. 

A year passed in the blink of an eye. It feels short, but it is long enough for each of us to change and grow. We may achieve more than our goals, or give up our New Year’s resolutions because our plans have changed. Thus, whether we stick to the resolutions or not, they do not indicate our success or failure.

These goals are the foundation of success because we can achieve something only when we want to

In my opinion, the heart of New Year’s resolutions lies in our hope and confidence about the upcoming year. When a new year begins, we always believe that we can get rid of everything bad and start again. Optimism allows us to dream big, making it the perfect time to set goals. These goals are the foundation of success because we can achieve something only when we want to. We will not work hard for them if we think they are not important enough to be a goal. Without the New Year’s resolution, I would not even try to change my diet, improve my English, or find an internship. Besides, they give us valuable lessons even if we fail to achieve them. They urge us to be more self-disciplined if we fail because of laziness. They help us learn more about ourselves if we fail because of these changes. They guide us to make another checklist for the coming year if we can do better. 

Goals are meaningless if they are realistic. Let’s set New Year’s resolutions first. Who knows what will happen in 2023?