NEW YORK — For many, it's the annual year-end exercise in futility. But at midnight, a blank slate awaits the next resolution.
From the first fireworks display to the final chorus of “Auld Lang Syne,” 366 days into the future — 2024 is a leap year — we'll finally achieve long-eluded goals, realize our aspirations, and embrace all things new. This may be the year to resolutely tackle your new year's resolutions.
“As humans, we are aspirational creatures,” says Omid Fotuhi, a social psychologist who studies motivation and performance.
“The fact that we have goals, the fact that we want to set them, is just a manifestation of an almost universal desire within us to stretch, to achieve, to expand and grow,” director Fotuhi said. said. Western He received his PhD in Learning Innovation from the Governors University Institute and is a Research Fellow at the University of Pittsburgh.
“New Year's resolutions are one of the ways we make them come true,” he said. “There's something so liberating about a fresh start. Imagine starting with a blank canvas. Anything is possible.”
If so, could this be the year you run a marathon and conquer (or even make peace with) your nemesis like the scale and your fat waist? Why not study Chinese, register to vote, and actually vote? There are so many questions and so much time to be late.
Tim Williams was making resolutions for himself: lose weight, drink less, exercise more, yada yada.
Now he doesn't care.
“Before, I'd try and fail or give up,” said Williams, a part-time resident of Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Carla Valeria Silva de Santos, who moved to Florida from Brazil, wants to learn to play the guitar. Her native language is Portuguese and she would like to learn Spanish and improve her English.
No matter your resolution, the ultimate goal is to “improve your life and be at peace with yourself,” she said.
Fellow Fort Lauderdale resident Josh Moore sees things along the lines of natural philosopher Sir Isaac Newton and physics. For every action there must be an equal reaction.
“If you eat a lot of candy and desserts at holiday parties, go for a run,” he said, taking a break from a jog with his dog. “Maybe you drank too much and you're hungover. But if you feel better the next day, go to the gym.”
Too many people are too kind to themselves, he argued. “You have to actually take responsibility for yourself.”
Determinations don't have to be big, grand or overly ambitious, Fotuhi says.
Even so, he said, value should not only be measured in results, but also in what one becomes by striving to improve oneself.
“Goals exist only to serve as a starting point,” Fotuhi says. “If they don't do it, it might not be the right goal for you.”
In other words, it's time to readjust goals and expectations, he said, adding that some people have been holding on to outdated goals for too long.
“Setting overly ambitious goals won't get you excited or make you believe it's possible. In that case, consider something a little more affordable. Start with a 5k. ”For example, then you move up to 10,000,” Fotuhi said.
___
Kozin contributed from Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
