With 2021 coming to an end, the tradition of people in the United States making New Year’s resolutions has seemed to stay the same. This way of stating and hoping for change can end up being for the better or the worse. It will either increment a new lifestyle choice or not. This ends up leaving the question: What is the true effect New Year’s Resolutions have on the people who choose to partake in them, and what can be done to make a New Year’s Resolution that leaves a lasting positive effect?

Are New Year’s resolutions destined to fail? Well, a study done by Psych News Daily shows a surprising number of people, 64 percent, abandon their New Year’s resolutions. Since almost two out of three people don’t end up finishing their resolutions, they can leave people feeling like they failed for the year, demoralizing them for the rest of the year and even the next. Sophomore Anah Packard said, ”I think it’s good to reflect on how you can improve yourself, but I feel like resolutions are often pointless because more often than not they don’t last.”While there are several reasons for these resolutions to not end up being a success, for those who do care it will affect them negatively.These breakable promises that we make for ourselves end up being whatever when we do look back at it, but deep inside a sense of shame can get built up because we just wanted to be better.For example one of the most common New Year Resolutions is to start going to the gym;however,this can lack motivation from the individual leading to never going.

While there are negative things that come from New Year’s Resolutions, the positive side can be really beneficial if resolutions are completed. Junior Aaron Bissonette said, ”They can really push people to start doing beneficial things in their life that they wouldn’t normally do without a push like a resolution.” Sometimes this push to be a better person or to make a positive goal is all it takes to commit a person for the whole year to be a better human or start a healthier way to live.