As the new year approaches, one of the most common things people will do is start thinking of their “New Years Resolutions.” New Years resolutions are motives or things that people wish to change, typically about themselves, for the start of the new year. How often are they really attained? Will they eventually die out?

What even is the point of a New Years resolution? Because it’s a new year, it’s when people decide that they want to change things about themselves or their lives.

Examples of resolutions are exercising daily, going for a new goal (a job promotion, money goal, college degree, etc.), or something more serious such as not drinking alcohol or quitting cigarettes which also may be harder to maintain.

How is the “new year” an excuse for people to change? Change should be throughout the year and not just a certain day. The New Year is just an excuse to make people feel better about things that they wish they could change, when really the change doesn’t happen half of the time.

Around 45% of people actually make resolutions, but only 8% are actually successful in attaining them. Although New Year’s resolutions may be somewhat of a motivational boost, they are just an excuse to make people feel better about doing things they wish they could.

As easy as working out, recycling, or trying to quit smoking, after the New Year, those resolutions start to go away and old habits are usually picked right back up again.

The most common resolution that people make are self improvement or education related resolutions, which may include going back to school or being a better person by increasing a positive character trait. The least common resolution that people make are relationship related, which may include being more respectful to a spouse, or maybe even putting that partner first before other things. Resolutions that are easily maintainable are more likely to be lastly.

The most important thing about resolutions is how long do they actually last? At first, resolutions may seem fun and spontaneous, but as time goes on, those resolutions may not be as apparent. 75% of resolutions are still maintained within the first week, fast forwarding to 6 months later, it drops down to 46% of people maintaining them.

Clearly, resolutions are never really maintained, so making a resolution when January rolls around doesn’t make a ton of sense.

If resolutions were actually maintained, the world would change immensely. Resolutions for getting a raise at work or maybe even fulfilling a deed world result in a lot of change in the world.

Sadly, not many resolutions are maintained, but if they were, how would this world be different?