NEW YORK — For many, it is a useless annual exercise. But with midnight and waiting for the new year, the slate is wiped clean for a new round of resolutions.
From the first salvo of fireworks to the final chorus of “Auld Lang Syne,” there are 366 days ahead — because 2024 is a leap year — to finally achieve long-sought goals, to fulfill aspirations and to be firm with everyone New Year’s resolutions.
“As humans, we are aspirational creatures,” said Omid Fotuhi, social psychologist and motivation and performance researcher.
“The fact that we have goals, the fact that we want to set goals is nothing more than a manifestation of that internal and almost universal desire to want to stretch, reach, expand and grow,” added Fotuhi, director of learning innovation at Western Governors. University Labs and adjunct researcher at the University of Pittsburgh.
“New Year’s resolutions are one of the ways to do it,” he noted. “There is something very liberating about starting from scratch. Imagine starting with a blank canvas. Everything is possible”.
If so, could this be the year to run a marathon and conquer (or make peace with) old enemies like the bathroom scale? Maybe to learn Mandarin or register to vote and get to do it? Many questions and a lot of time to delay them.
Tim Williams used to set a battery of resolutions: lose weight, drink less, exercise more and blah, blah, blah.
Now, he doesn’t even bother.
“In the past I did them and failed or abandoned them or whatever,” said Williams, who lives part of the year in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Carla Valeria Silva de Santos, a Brazilian who lives in Florida, wants to learn to play the guitar. With Portuguese as her first language, she wants to learn Spanish and improve her English.
With any resolution, he noted, the ultimate goal is “to improve your life and be at peace with yourself.”
Josh Moore, another Fort Lauderdale resident, sees things along the lines of naturalist philosopher Sir Isaac Newton and physics. For every action there must be an equal reaction.
“If you do something like eat a lot of candy or a lot of desserts at a party, go for a run,” he said while breaking up a run with his dog.
Too many people are too soft on themselves, he noted: “You have to really hold yourself accountable.”
Resolutions don’t have to be big, grandiose or overly ambitious, Fotuhi added.
And even if they are, he noted that their value should not be derived exclusively from achievement, but should also be measured by what one becomes by trying to improve oneself.
“Goals just get you going,” Fotuhi said. “If they don’t do that, then maybe it’s not the right goal for you.”
In other words, it’s time to recalibrate goals and expectations, he said, adding that some people hold onto outdated goals for too long.
“If you set a goal that is too ambitious, that doesn’t have the effect of exciting you and making you believe that it is possible, then perhaps you should think about a goal that is a little more within your reach: start with 5 kilometers, for example, and then go up to 10,” he added.
Source: AP
