New year, new me! With 2022 just starting, many people have set resolutions with a driven mentality. The new year provides Syracuse University students with the initiative to accomplish their goals, but despite the beneficial outcomes of achieving a healthier lifestyle — which many people hope for in their resolutions — the new year doesn’t have to entail large, abrupt changes.

Significant New Year’s resolutions are rarely maintained. Although millions of Americans set New Year’s resolutions, less than 8% of people stick to them, according to UAB Medicine. The annual cycle of creating then abandoning a goal results in minimal value. If the maintenance of a goal appears unreachable, why create such a demanding one in the first place? SU students can make more attainable resolutions by taking their original, grand resolution and simplifying it, displaying a more realistic approach to resolutions.

Significant change is also unnecessary, given that uncertainty in the upcoming year prevails. Even if someone composes thoughtful and organized resolutions, external forces often create challenges to sticking with them. Over the past few years, the pandemic created barriers to people’s desired accomplishments and made once simple goals complicated or even impossible.

As a more effective means of resolution, SU students can direct their focus on small achievements, without a time restriction. Although some people become ready to make life changes on Jan. 1, this doesn’t apply to everyone, according to Insider. Personal goals have different time spans, and it becomes unrealistic to believe that the start of the new year will unveil a gateway to the end goal. With this in mind, it can be more beneficial for students to wait until they are prepared for the challenge.

SU students must learn to embrace uncertainty. The world is outside of anyone’s control, and it is time to start living in the present. Being present and mindful makes people happier, and also has benefits such as helping deal with pain more effectively, reducing stress and improving coping mechanisms for negative emotions, according to Positive Psychology. Focusing too much on large future goals and deadlines can negatively impact students’ mental health, but creating smaller and more attainable goals allows for students to focus their attention to the present.

With all of this in mind, the value of significant goals remains prominent. Creating a resolution on Jan. 1 does show initiative and determination, however, altering goals to create a simpler change and less restrictive parameters can make the goal more attainable.

With the new year and the new semester, SU students should ensure that their resolutions can be realistically achieved, accounting for life’s unpredictability and the feasibility of their ultimate goal. By creating smaller resolutions, people can be more confident that they will stick to their goals, and by the end of the year, they will be proud of their accomplishments rather than upset they abandoned their goal.

Hannah Karlin is a freshman English major. Her column appears biweekly. She can be reached at hekarlin@syr.edu.

Published on January 23, 2022 at 9:36 pm