“Happy New Year!” The new decade has finally started, and it is the time when people start to think of their New Year’s Resolutions. Cambridge Dictionary, describes a New Year’s Resolution as a promise that you make to yourself to start doing something good or stop doing something bad on the first day of the year, and continuing throughout the year. Lots of people have New Year’s Resolutions to plan out what they want accomplished in the year. People who are serious about their resolutions, put in a lot of effort, so that it can be completed by December 31st and they can be happy with the progress they have made within the year. Sophomore, Zoe Snyder’s, New Year’s Resolution is to read more. Snyder enjoys reading in her free time and this year, she wanted to do something other than always be on her phone.

“Reading helps the time pass for me. Last year, I read some, but not a lot, like a book or two every few weeks. This year, however, I am determined to read a lot more, and stay off my phone. My goal is wanting to read at least one book every month, and read books that I would normally not read,” Snyder said.

Some New Year’s Resolutions can have different levels of difficulty, depending on what the resolution is. Resolutions like reading at least 30 minutes everyday or working out everyday is not a very hard resolution to accomplish, but they are easy only if you are dedicated enough to get it done everyday. If you do not put in the amount of effort or dedication into your resolution, then sometimes you will not see the change or progress you want to see. Resolutions are supposed to be somewhat difficult and hard to complete, because you are trying to do it continuously for a year, so you can see the progress you want. Sophomore, Brianna Packer’s, New Year’s Resolution is wanting to draw more. Packer enjoys drawing in her free time, but school sometimes gets in the way of her hobby, so she made a promise to herself to take time for her to draw more.

“Drawing is one of my favorite things to do. I do not get much time to draw, outside of art, because I am really busy with school, so I normally do it on the weekends. I wanted to start drawing more during the week. I am going to try and draw a lot more, because that is the change I wanted this year,” Packer said.

Sometimes as the year passes by, people will not follow through with their resolution. Some people will start their resolution and follow through with it for a few weeks or months and then something happens and they do not continue, or they stop for a week or two and then start working on it again. Most people say that the reason they do not follow through is because they get lazy and do not wish to continue with their promise. They say that what they wanted to accomplish was too difficult and they did not want to continue with the promise. Sometimes if people do not wish to continue, they will start to do something different, so they are still having a goal that they wanted to be accomplished in the year. Psychology teacher, Michael Allen, says that the explanation behind people not wanting to follow through with their resolutions is because either they are too lazy or their resolution is not specific enough.

“With really anything people do, they can get lazy with it. There is not really a science behind not finishing resolutions, it is mainly just because people get lazy or the resolution is not specific enough to where you want to finish it,” said Allen.

The phrase “new year, new me” can relate to anyone who wants change in the new year. Resolutions can make the change happen. Through dedication, and persistence, an improvement can be seen. The level of difficulty can determine how much effort and work you are willing to put in to accomplish that goal. Not following through with your goal is a response to people just getting lazy and not wanting to continue anymore. With effort and dedication, everyone’s resolutions can be completed.