Mira Berenbaum

Staff Writer

It’s a new year, which means that it’s time for New Year’s resolutions. “I’m going to lose 30 pounds,” or “I’m going to get a gym membership,” are phrases heard all around. But in reality, are people really going to keep and fulfill these resolutions? Is there a need to have them in the first place? Forbes Magazine has proven that out of the 45% of Americans who make New Year’s resolutions, only 8% fully commit to them. From the 37% who give up on their resolutions by the end of the year, two thirds of them give up by the end of January. It also shows that people who make positive resolutions, such as “take on a new hobby”, are 50% more likely to fulfill their resolutions than people who make negative resolutions, such as “lose weight.”

If you want to achieve your goal, you really need to want to achieve it. You can’t be lazy about it, rather, you need to push yourself and give it your all. The resolution also has to be reasonable. You can’t assume that you are going to lose 100 pounds in one year. Make sure you have a plan. You need to have some sort of schedule or timetable of how you are going to achieve your goal. Try to be part of the 8% who can achieve their goals, and not the 37% who give up.

The top three resolutions of 2016 have been weight loss, exercise, and healthy eating. The common denominator of those three resolution is health and body image improvement. It is shown that 90% of girls ages 15 to 17 want to change one aspect of their bodies, and 50% want to change something because of social media. Why are we looking for change? Why can’t we be satisfied with ourselves? We should not let flawlessly photoshopped magazine cover models dictate what we should look like, because it is impossible to look like that in real life. We set unrealistic expectations for ourselves, knowing we will not be able to reach them. In order to allow ourselves to succeed, we need to be positive.

My New Year’s resolution for all of you is to look in the mirror and point out three good things before you even think of pointing out a single bad thing. So before you criticize yourselves, remember this quote from The Help: “You is kind. You is smart. You is important.”