Harley LeMaster

Multimedia Staff

New Year, New Plan

New Years resolutions, a holiday favorite that is overlooked and often hated on. It’s a very time consuming task of coming up with one thing or multiple things that you’ll do differently this year to be a better you.

We all have to admit we’ve all tried to at least accomplish this one year, and many of us turned out to fail. However, this is not due to the fact that resolutions don’t work, just that you’re over thinking what they should be.

Resolutions would work just fine for everyone if they picked one that they could actually potentially accomplish.

For example, the all-time favorite resolution, going to the gym, is ridiculous. To think that if you’re someone who has never gone to a gym once for the past few years that you could legitimately go to the gym more than one day a week.

Even if you’re someone who lives off Twinkies and Dr.Pepper, you wouldn’t want to automatically give all that up cold turkey, because you’re so used to filling up on those delicious treats. It would be so much easier to say you’ll just be limiting yourself to one or two (maybe three) a week.

If you refuse to agree with the above statements than how about the word initiative. The human race runs off initiative and if we didn’t, we would never get anything done. Your 2018 resolution would be a success if you set up a reward for yourself.

Let’s say that this year you want to be kinder to your peers, for every time you give out a compliment or encouraging words, you reward yourself with a new shirt of a sweet treat, that way you will be more encouraged to do what you claimed you would.

Always remember resolutions are up to you and how you want to come across them is of course your choice, but let’s be real here. You’ve come to realize that making an unrealistic resolution is a little ridiculous, and you agree that if there was something for you at the end of the deal, that you’ll be in this for the long run.

So, good luck to you but trust me you won’t need it.

Jordan Vallejo

Online Editor

New Year’s ResoLOSEtions

The first of January is a day of celebration. A day to celebrate the fact that you didn’t die from tide pod poisoning, and didn’t get a documentary series on your 600-pound life. These events may seem outlandish, but they are more likely to happen than the resolutions set forth by hopeful millennials.

The fact that people feel obligated to start their resolutions on New Year’s, in and of itself, is a skewed way of thinking. Any goal you hope to accomplish should be reflected upon all year long. Real goals don’t start on New Year’s. Real goals stick with us everyday.

People who set such impractical objectives for themselves also don’t realize the effort it actually takes to stick with your resolution throughout the entirety of the year.

Some of the more optimistic resolutions, such as weight loss/muscle gain, or making better relationships, often take much longer than 365 days. For some people to think that they can achieve these kinds of goals in a month’s time is ridiculous.

Plus, the idea of procrastination is a real problem that we all face. As I write this piece, I think about getting more time to sleep or what food I’m having for dinner. For adults, daily concerns of job pressures and family ties often dictate how a person carries on their routine. The nature of day-to-day life is too unpredictable to determine if any time is available to successfully work on the plan they set forth at the beginning of the year. Simply put, there are just too many obstacles in the way of accomplishing these taxing resolutions.

The most important thing people should realize is that every goal is a process. Take it one day at a time. Set a goal that could realistically occur in the foreseeable future. Set one-week plans or one-month plans. Start simple and continuously find more complex ways to make progress. If you realize the goal is too challenging, be willing to make adjustments. The new year shouldn’t mean a new you. You shouldn’t try to make such a life-altering change in your life just because the ball dropped. Hopefully once the new year rolls around, that change you aspire for will happen naturally. You don’t need a lofty goal to celebrate that first day of January.