As with any new year, people made resolutions. After the chaos that was 2020, resolutions mean more than ever entering 2021. One aspect of resolutions that is often not considered is the rate at which people give them up. According to a USA today article from 2019, most people abandon their resolutions by January 17, sometimes earlier if they are fitness related. How do West students stack up?

Senior Javon Aragon thinks, right off the bat, that people should reconsider setting resolutions at all. “[People should] set goals that they can continuously work on most of the year, not that just works at the beginning,” Aragon said.

Aragon said setting goals at the beginning of the year just leads to procrastination, and he, “… give[s] resolutions about 2 months before people get bored or they aren’t as useful.”

Aragon brings up an interesting point, but is not alone in his thoughts of New Year’s resolutions being a waste of goal-setting brainpower. 

Senior Glenda Torres said, “It all depends on your motivation and if it really matters to you… I feel like if you can integrate it into your routine it’ll be easier to accomplish. Especially when people go on breaks from school or work, their motivations change and goals that they set at the beginning of the year aren’t worth it anymore.”

So how, in 2021, can we create goals that don’t fizzle out by the time spring break rolls around? Well, as these seniors have shown, breaking goals down into more manageable chunks, as well as being willing to change them as the year brings its changes, is ideal. Setting large and vague resolutions at the beginning of a year ultimately presents the most opportunity for those goals to fail, and that’s just an easy way to get bummed out. 

This year, it seems that focus on embracing change will be in the best interest of most, and that small, manageable goals are the easiest way to ensure they are met.