The holiday season is a time where we celebrate with family, food, presents, and it ultimately leads into the new year. During this time, many want to set new goals to become a whole new person in the first couple of weeks of the new year. By the end of December, we have all eaten more than our weight in food whether it was from Thanksgiving, Christmas, or other celebrations. At the beginning of the new year, you will hear almost everyone say the same things regarding the need for them to start losing weight, working out, and eating healthier. New Year’s resolutions not only include beginning a new workout routine at the start of the year, but they can also consist of starting a new diet, saving more money, being a nicer person, and improving your overall mental, physical, and emotional health for a new start. However, the question comes up about whether or not New Year’s resolutions are effective enough to even stress over or whether or not you should put the amount of pressure on yourself at the beginning of the new year to become this new, improved, and perceivably perfect person in a couple of weeks time. Keep reading to learn about the psychological reasoning regarding making New Year’s resolutions, meaning why do we humans feel the need to live a completely new life at the start of a new year and to also find out whether or not you should start filling out your new gym membership form instead of celebrating the new year all the way through! 

  As a human population, we are constantly afraid of what others may think of us. Therefore, we continue to come up with ways to please others and to live a better life, sometimes not for ourselves but for the approval of others. This means that New Year’s resolutions piggy-back off of the idea of self-improvement. Senior Chris King is a perfect example of this; he commented, “I make New Year’s resolutions to set goals to better myself for the year, and try to accomplish things I did not the year before.” The main psychological reason that we set New Year’s resolutions and often fail to commit to them is called False Hope Syndrome. According to research out of all of the adults who make resolutions, only 10% keep them months into the year if they are even successful. False Hope syndrome takes into account that when we make resolutions and set goals for ourselves, we make them too unrealistic to achieve. If we wish to accomplish new things and truly want them to be followed by a success story, we need to set smaller goals leading up to the desired finished product. This ultimately leads to the fact that our most common resolutions are truly too unrealistic, and we are then unable to start completely new different ways of life in a matter of a couple of weeks. 

  If after reading this you still strongly believe in New Year’s resolutions, here are some tips you should take into account when preparing for your new ways of life. First of all, make sure that your goals are realistic to your personal experience, and second set the time to take smaller steps as you achieve these goals; do not rush anything. Lastly, avoid falling into old habits, and look for support from your friends and family. They are the most important people in your life, and you know they want you to succeed just as much as you!