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New Year’s Resolutions: Useful or Useless?

January 1 Resolution
 

Over dinner with a friend this week, we began discussing New Year’s resolutions, which led to a debate on whether they were useful, or useless. My friend strongly opposed the idea of making a New Year’s resolution. “They are worthless!” he exclaimed, “No one ever keeps them, and then people feel like failures!” As he went on and on about the pointlessness of resolutions, I smiled and nodded my head politely, but deep down inside I wished I could turn a switch and shut him off.

 

Of course not everyone follows through with a New Year’s resolution, but they are definitely not useless. I’ve been successful in achieving many of my health and fitness resolutions in the past. But even more importantly, how could the desire for self-improvement and a fresh start ever be considered a waste of time?

Looking into New Year’s Resolutions a bit more when I got home from the date, I learned:

 

  • 45% of Americans make at least one resolution each year
  • 46% of that group actually remember their resolution past June
     

On the bright side, I found:

  • People who actually do make a resolution are 10 times more likely to reach their goal than those who do not make a resolution
  • Successful resolution achievers completed the following:
    • Broke their resolutions into smaller goals
    • Made plans on how to keep their resolution
    • Kept a record of their progress


Ah ha!

Whether you choose to make one or not, my advice would be to ignore anyone who suggests they are worthless. New Year’s resolutions are a means to achieve a goal or improve in some way—and must be complemented by setting goals, planning and keeping records, and of course, some good old-fashioned hard work.

If your New Year’s resolution was to lose weight, check out So You Made A New Year’s Resolution to Lose Weight. Now What?

To read more about how to make a resolution work for you, visit: Statistics on Resolutions and Achieving Your New Year’s Resolution

Good luck!
 

 

by sailGirl on 01/31/2012 | Share Story With a Friend

tags: Weight-Loss, Diet Tools, motivation, planning, mood, strategies, holidays

About the Author

Maria Trainor

Maria started at HMR in 2011 and immediately felt at home. She has a passion for fitness and healthy living—including running and teaching fitness classes at a local gym. She is looking forward to sharing her own health and wellness ideas, experiences, and strategies with the HMRdiet community.

Comments (7) Post a comment
I agree with you Maria, resolutions are important just as making plans and trying to follow through with plans in an HMR class. Each type of goal takes commitment, and measurable steps and accountability. Definitely worth it - at the very least it gives people hope that they can start achieving their goals, whatever they may be. thanks for the blog!
by jennyb on 02/02/2012
LOVE your blog Maria! All good points. Had never seen some of the data before! Personally I set goals all the time--health, financial, personal, professional, social, etc. In fact, I probably have too many goals:). I find that if something stays in my head it rarely happens--but if I write it down--it becomes a real "to do". Writing down also means I'm probably looking at it on a frequent basis. I don't always achieve every goal in the original time frame and sometimes I decide that a goal is no longer a goal. I can't say that I follow all the steps you mention (although they're all good ideas)--but I do frequently assess the status of achieving my goals. My biggest issue with New Years Resolutions is that you're "supposed to make one" that time of year. I prefer to use my overall goal setting approach in a year round fashion.
by DesireeRogers on 01/31/2012
Thank you for your comments, everyone! Hopefully, each of you are off to a strong start with any resolutions that you made :)
by sailGirl on 01/31/2012
Great blog Maria! I love New Years Resolutions! It always feels like a fresh start on something I want to work on. We even had my kids make them this year which was fun :)
by KimG on 01/31/2012
Thanks Maria! I always think of NY resolutions as a time to set goals. It gives me something to work towards and a new year is the perfect time to get a fresh start on things I've been putting off.
by SandiBraithwaite on 01/31/2012
Great article Maria! I am a big resolutions guy. Every year around the second half of December I am thinking about the new Erich that I will craft next year. It is a very exciting time for me faced with the prospect of making positive changes. I may not meet all my goals for the next year, but at least I know what my goals are - its kinda hard to meet your goals if you don't have any :).
by ivandrago on 01/31/2012
Thanks Maria. Resolutions are a great place to start!
by debbiec on 01/31/2012