New Year’s resolutions have never worked out for anybody I know. Some members of my family have tried New Year’s resolutions and always at about a week in they’ve failed them. I’ve tried New Year’s resolutions and often forgot about them simply by virtue of the fact that expending effort to go out of my way to better myself is not an easy task. People who try and succeed, I applaud you. Making a change, big or small, is difficult. Personally, my problems with New Year’s resolutions are that you can make that change any time, they’re difficult to maintain and those problems don’t always need to be fixed.

Resolutions don’t necessarily have to be ‘New Year’s’—you can fix your own problems at any time. The new year only sets a deadline to improve, which only delays your own improvement. Most of the time, your problems are what you, yourself, deem them. But your problems may not be an actual problem but just something society expects out of you, such as getting fit or eating fewer sweets. These most likely aren’t actual flaws you have but just what you believe your problems are coming from. Attacking these sorts of issues are usually good because it helps up your confidence, but on the other hand, they fall through easily due to relatively low commitment.

With nothing holding your feet to the fire, making sure these resolutions actually pull through is difficult. Commitment is, for me, the most difficult part of resolutions. Normally it’s what kills resolutions for me, so this year I’m starting anew. My resolution is to keep my own resolution this year and stop procrastinating. Wish me luck.