As 2025 comes to an end, students prepare to create their New Year’s resolutions. New Year’s resolutions provide students a fresh start, time to self-reflect, and time to create a plan to improve their lives.
Students find resolutions a great way to become better versions of themselves. For example, Stefanie Banks (9) expresses, “setting resolutions help me become more motivated to reach my goals.” Many other students feel the same way. Students who continue to work towards their resolutions during the year become happier and feel more fulfilled knowing they accomplished their long-awaited goals. Banks relates to this, “When I completed my resolution last year, I felt really proud of myself.”
While many individuals set New Year’s resolutions, not many actually complete them. In fact, studies from the Baylor College of Medicine show that 88% of people who create resolutions abandon them within the first two weeks. For example, resolutions typically fail because most individuals create resolutions due to tradition, not because they truly want to change an aspect of their life. Maliyah Davis (10) reinforces this concept, “I’ve made resolutions before just because it felt like something I was supposed to do. Those didn’t last because I wasn’t truly committed, which taught me that resolutions work best when they’re personal.” When making resolutions, students should remember to bear a reason for doing so. Without a reason, students will not gain the motivation to complete their resolutions.
Additionally, according to an article from The Ohio State University, students who set New Year’s resolutions often do not expect to come across obstacles. However, even the most straightforward resolutions come across obstacles and some students let those obstacles throw them off course. This leads students to become unsatisfied with how they spent their year and wish they pushed forward to reach their goals. If students do plan to create resolutions, they should prepare themselves for future obstacles. Samantha Struzzieri (11) explains, “ I did set a New Year’s resolution last year, but I had a hard time finding a balance between sports, schoolwork, and family which caused me to be distracted and not complete it.” While Struzzieri did experience a difficult time following through with last year’s resolution, she plans to overcome these challenges and complete this year’s. Struzzieri also plans to lether family know about her goals to minimize the amount of distractions she faces this year.
Although completing New Year’s resolutions can come with challenges, many students express that once they set one and actually stick to it, they find resolutions a great way to improve their lives. As the end of the year draws nearer, students can create and complete their own New Year’s resolutions, which do not take too much time. As long as students feel motivated to start and work on their resolutions, they can become better versions of themselves.
