It’s that time of year again.
No, I’m not talking about the time to start wearing our winter coats, or the time to shape up and start putting in the work to get the most out of the winter semester.
I am talking about something equally clichéd, which you can guarantee will be part of the generic back-to-school conversation, along with the predictable, “So, what did you do over the break?”
I’m talking about New Year’s resolutions.
Every year I get asked this same question, and every year I consider sticking a post-it note to my forehead with “No, not really, actually I think they’re kind of stupid.”
Here’s why.
Firstly, on the most basic level, who actually emerges miraculously 12 months later in next January completely transformed? Albert Einstein said, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing again and expecting different results,” and that’s exactly what New Year’s resolutions entail.
I’m all for self-reflection and self-improvement, but being pressured to come up with a list of unrealistic expectations for what you can achieve in the next year strikes me. After all, that’s a relatively short period of time in the average lifespan and inevitably giving up on them a couple of weeks, days or, it has been known, hours later, is a pretty inefficient way to go about making any sort of lasting change.
Yet we all somehow think that this year will miraculously be different. It’s been proven that every time you make the decision to exert willpower, for example by making yourself study for an extra hour or choose fruit rather than chocolate for a snack, it becomes a little bit easier the next time.
By extension, it would logically follow that this also works the other way around; that every time you casually give up on a resolution, it makes it just that bit harder to stick to something the next time. So the ineffective nature of New Year’s resolutions could actually be doing us harm.
Moreover, have you ever noticed how remarkably similar everyone’s New Year’s resolutions tend to be? Everyone seems to want to get more exercise, be nicer to their family, get better grades, and be unafraid to live their dreams.
Not to say that these are bad things to aspire to, just that these resolutions paint a very generic picture of life, which isn’t representative of the diverse range of humans who make up this planet.
Not everyone’s ideal life involves academic and career success. Not everyone’s ideal body is thin and athletic. Furthermore, January 1 is not even the start of the year for a huge chunk of the world’s population; Chinese New Year usually falls in mid-January to February.
Perhaps for a variety of personal reasons January isn’t actually the best time for us to go about trying to make improvements.
In a study by Ira Ockene, a cardiologist at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, for the journal Nature, confirmed that calorie intake varies season by season. Winter eating is associated with our conditioned, primitive impulse to stockpile food for winter.
The study also found that on average, people consume 86 more calories per day in the fall compared to the spring.
Finally, New Year’s resolutions are also simplistic in that they promote a worldview very lacking in nuance, where life is a constant uphill journey of self-improvement.
Yet common sense and personal experience tells us that most people’s lives do not resemble a straight, upward diagonal line, but a series of gentle curves punctuated by sudden dramatic straight lines falls, followed by picking ourselves up.
A single resolution scribbled half-heartedly on the back of a crinkled-up Cadbury’s chocolate wrapper cannot completely overhaul our lives and personalities, nor should we want it to.
Many of the things we so quickly dismiss as negative attributes of which we wish to get rid of in a year, be it a quick temper, incompetence at math, or a few extra pounds often have a positive side or are part of what makes us all unique individuals.
However, the idea of making general suggestions for how we wish to improve our lives is not completely pointless.
Instead of making New Year’s resolutions, make a series of general and simple principles which you will strive to live your life by. Get some sleep, take the stairs, don’t sweat the small stuff. Be thankful for what you have. Read a good book now and then.
I usually cringe at the slogans on corny fridge magnets, but I saw one the other day that contained a fair bit of wisdom: “life doesn’t have to be perfect to be wonderful.” And I think it is this principle that should encourage us to forsake unrealistic and generic resolutions and reflect on the fact that we are, for the most part, doing okay as we are.
Eleanor Higginson, Staff Writer
Featured image courtesy of Tom Grill, Getty Images
