Make New Year's Resolutions

It’s officially the time of year that people are hating themselves for not keeping up with last year’s resolutions. That gym membership they got in January hasn’t been used since the end of shorts season and their vow to stop eating junk food ended with a bang during the Hostess crisis. Sometime during this period of self loathing, almost every person will ask themselves whether it’s even worth it to set goals for the next year when they know they’ll never stick to them.

Yes, it is.

It’s always worth it to try to be a better person. It may only last the month of January, you may only make it until March or July or November, but that’s at least 1 month of being the best person you can be.

If your resolution is to commit one random act of kindness every day and you only make it 2 months without fail, that’s still 61 random acts of kindness that wouldn’t have happened otherwise. That’s 61 people you impacted in a positive way. If your resolution is to write a little everyday and at the end of January you’ve only written a couple pages and give up, you’re a better writer having written those 2 pages than none at all. If your resolution is to hit the gym 3 times a week and you give up by June, at least you were healthier for half the year.

Even if you set the same goals every year and each year you fail, maybe this year you won’t. Maybe this is the year you become addicted to the smile on a stranger’s face when you hand them something they dropped. Maybe this is the year you become truly inspired and write an entire novel. Maybe this is the year you learn to get joy from the burning in your lungs and the aching of your muscles.

By the end of the year, you’ll probably forget how you succeeded and instead focus on the ways that you failed. You’ll wonder whether the hope of doing better is worth the disappointment of failing. But usually you’ll still make those resolutions. Whether you write a list or simply think of them, you’ll find the ways to improve yourself because we all want to be better.

So yes, New Year’s resolutions are worth it. Now get off your ass and make some before 2013 is over.

Stay rad, pals. And happy new year!