everyday rebekah

Despite the tradition’s long history, many Americans are opting out.

According to a Pew Research survey done in 2024, it states that 70% of Americans didn’t make any resolutions for the New Year. Fifty-six percent of them stated they just didn’t want to, and 12% stating that they just break them too easily.

Now I have to admit that I am usually part of the 12%. I have found that once I sit down to write my New Year’s resolutions, I end up writing about 50. Also, everything I wrote was vague with no specific details or a plan.

I don’t know how I expected myself to follow that and just say, right, yeah, okay. I mean, I definitely could have written down a plan, but I didn’t, and it was just not a “new year, new me” year.

So are New Year’s resolutions stupid?

Based on this article I found on Business Insider, “Scientific Reasons That New Year’s Resolutions are Stupid,” mentions how we as people set these very “pressure-filled, unrealistic, and less likely to be accomplished” goals towards the next year. As well as how out of the 45% of Americans who do create New Year’s resolutions, only 8% succeed.

But no, I still refuse to believe that New Year’s resolutions are stupid. To me, I feel as though it’s the perfect time when you can feel like you’re starting fresh. Put the past year behind you and, most importantly, get excited about the upcoming year.

Not only that, but I think it gives you time to reflect on the past year and how you would like to go about the next year differently. Which, to me, reflection is nothing but a good thing.

People yearn for the excitement and possibility of what can be, including myself. So, because I am refusing to believe that New Year’s resolutions are stupid or don’t work, here is what I am doing to reach my goals before 2027.

1. Set a plan

When I wrote down my resolutions this year, I made sure that with each one, I wrote down what specifically I wanted to target and how I could achieve those goals.

One of my resolutions this year is to gain more confidence. I gave myself the simple task of taking more photos of myself. Nothing too crazy, but something that can build towards more confidence.

2. Don’t have an all-or-nothing attitude

Celebrate the little wins. Don’t put all this internal pressure on yourself that you need to execute the goal perfectly. Success is not always linear. There are going to be setbacks, but setting the expectation of getting back into it and adjusting as you go on is better than giving up totally.

Another one of my goals this year is to be more present and, more specifically, not be on social media as much. This meant either reading more, hanging out with friends, or watching a movie, etc. To also help prevent the doomscrolling, I set time limits on my social media apps.

However, when the time limit pops up, I have definitely pressed ignore or ‘remind me in 15 minutes’ more times than I would like to admit. But I am not giving up, I’m going to adjust and find different techniques until I find the right one. Even if that does mean deleting social media for a week to untrain my brain… Giving myself grace, and understanding this isn’t going to happen 14 days into the year.

3. Don’t make unrealistic expectations of yourself

I believe that you should dream big for your resolutions, if you want to. You never know what might happen in just a year. However, I will also say that there shouldn’t be this pressure to set an extreme goal. If all you want to do is drink more water, that’s perfect too! Even setting and accomplishing a smaller goal for yourself is something to be proud of and enjoy.

Like I mentioned above, a commitment of mine this year is to build more confidence by taking photos of myself. While I know I won’t completely cure my self-consciousness in a year, it’s exciting to recognize this as an attainable, low-pressure next step—one that I can realistically accomplish.

In my completely biased opinion, I believe New Year’s Resolutions should be encouraged!

No matter how the year plays out, these resolutions really help me lay down the pavement of what my intentions for the upcoming year are and get me excited.

I also plan to change my fate of failing this year, and to create my path in feeling accomplished by the time 2027 rolls around. I am going to be intentional, consistent, and give myself grace when the first two don’t pan out all the time. And I really hope you guys will as well.