From a teen's perspective: New Year's Resolutions

It’s a new year! 2022 will bring a lot of milestones for my family. I will graduate high school and enter my first year of college. My youngest sister will go to high school. I will get to vote for the first time. Our nation will enter the third year of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

However, the new year often symbolizes a new beginning. Society believes we should walk with our heads held high and hopefully add something to our year. This typically manifests through new year’s resolutions. Stereotypically, these are never maintained, but I think the concept is a good thing. Striving for something small to work on during the next year is beneficial for one’s well being. 

I don’t think new year's resolutions necessarily need to be something that is tangible. People typically say they want to exercise more or eat more healthily. Both are great things to do, but I think taking on a new year’s resolution that adds something instead of restricting something  is also important in place of or along with a different type of resolution. Benjamin Franklin worked on a different virtue each week, on a rotating schedule, his whole life in order to live in a more fulfilling way. With this, he journaled about how he was doing with that specific virtue each day. This concept of self-improvement has importance while we enter a new year.

Adopting a concept to think about deliberately for most of the year has many benefits. Increasing the positive in your life will decrease the negative energy that comes with an ongoing pandemic and election year. Gratitude, for example, is proven to increase happiness. Kindness helps others and yourself feel better. Honesty causes less stress and creates real, loving relationships. Taking time throughout the year to work on one or more of these virtues will help you feel better overall.

However, true goals are not just one word to work on. If you actually want to obtain any of your goals, you must have a quantifiable practice. Saying simply, “be more grateful” will not get you anywhere. Instead, create something that is able to be measured. For gratitude, you could write down something you are grateful for everyday or thank a minimum amount of people each week. Creating your new year’s resolution in this fashion makes it attainable and sustainable. 

With the new year, we are all given a new beginning. Why not focus on working on making every day better through promoting positive concepts? The past few years have been very stressful on a global level, but if we all act in the interest of positivity and love for the next year, imagine where we could be.