The Pros and Cons of Setting New Year's Resolutions

by Oscar Pinto

New Year's resolutions, or the popular “New Year, New Me” mindset, are a chance for a fresh start. Some use this motivation to start new routines like working out or eating healthier. Others use it to stop consuming alcoholic beverages and smoking. And others use it to focus on self-spiritual growth.

Despite how they all seem different, they all have one thing in common: they are trying to change these habits with the extra motivation for the New Year.

This helps with setting new goals and kicks in some extra motivation to help start new hobbies and have better habits. And it can be a time of reflection on how you can improve yourself from past mistakes people have made in the year.

Although New Year's resolutions are great, not all resolutions are rainbows and sunshine. Many people make unrealistic resolutions paired with setting goals way too high which can lead to negative emotional responses if the goal isn't reached. Additionally, people are inconsistent and don't effectively plan to achieve their goals.

Pros

New year resolutions come along with the pro of goal-setting motivation. Goals can be things like going the gym, getting better grades and picking up a new, positive hobby.

For Jason Fernandez, senior and CCNN National Champion, his resolutions focus more on himself.

“My new year resolves to eat healthier and spend more time with my family and enjoy my friend's company before I leave for college,” he said.

Not only does it bring goal-setting motivation but before the process of goal-setting even begins, one needs to think about goals in depth. A time of reflection is important for any individual before setting new goals. Many use this time of the year to reflect upon their previous year, both on their failures and successes to not only grow as a person but in whatever task they are devoting their time to. 

Diego Landeta, a sophomore Basketball Player has this to say: “I have been reflecting on my life the past week and I am using this time of the year to make sustainable habits to better myself."

Cons

Although resolutions seem like all positives, resolutions can bring lots of negatives. Negatives include a lack of planning, making unrealistic goals, having dreams too high that will eventually kill your motivation to get better, and giving you short-lived motivation that will neglect long-term habits.

Ohana Behavioral Health affirms this by saying, “Failing to achieve resolutions can harm self-esteem and lead to negative self-talk.”

Many people have the habit of making unrealistic expectations. Habits like hitting the gym every single day which is unrealistic to some, because they have work, family, and other time constrictions. Another example of an unrealistic expectation is eating super healthy. 

Eating healthy is a doable habit but some people exaggerate it to an extreme. An extreme being they only eat vegetables or they are going to do crazy diets that they are not used to. These diets that their body is not used to could send the body into a shock that will end up hurting these individuals.

Emmanuel Rodriguez said, “Last year I tried doing the keto diet but it was not sustainable and I got sick the first week.” 

My Opinion

New Year's resolutions have both pros and cons. Although they bring a plethora of positives, negatives can undoubtedly going to deteriorate many of the pros. Many people are inconsistent with this. Without a doubt, New Year's resolutions are a great way to start the year.

It is just an unrealistic thing for people to do that will last them the whole year.

According to Drive research, they say that only 9% of Americans who make resolutions successfully keep them for the entire year.

Resolutions are missing one big thing, consistency. Although resolutions aren't realistic for the most part, it is a good motivation for those who will actually take their resolution seriously and work for it consistently.