New Year’s Resolutions
(Or for January, anyway.)
The New Year brings a seemingly endless number of advertisements, PSAs, and articles, which tell us what our resolutions ought to be and how we should go about keeping them. I recently read an article on what my resolutions should be as a twenty-something. It didn’t include “get a job” so phew! Bullet dodged.
These resolutions mean business, too. All those people swearing to beat the bulge mean big bucks for the fitness industry. In fact, last year, the resolution-ers spent over $60 billion dollars in such things as gym memberships, fitness equipment, and diet meals. Memberships to fitness clubs and the like are estimated to more than double at the start of each New Year and the industry relies on these eager, early-year sign-ups for their revenues. While this fitness flock means crowded space initially, most gyms see a decrease in attendance by mid-February.
Similarly, companies aimed at helping people quit smoking see a huge boost in numbers at the start of each year. Advertisements for nicotine patches, lozenges, and gums bombard us in every media outlet. (I’ve never been a smoker but some of those commercials are so intense I’m still convinced I need to quit.) Unfortunately, it is estimated that while 17 million Americans vow to quit smoking each year, only 1.3 million succeed long-term.
Which brings us to the age-old question: do New Year’s resolutions really work? Or are they merely a naïve optimism we hold at the beginning of the holidays, drunk off of holiday spirit and egged on by businesses with something to gain? Don’t we know deep down that if we really wanted to change, we wouldn’t need to wait for some ceremonious occasion?
Maybe. But I’d like to take a lighter approach. So what if many of us don’t fulfill our resolutions? (I just had a clementine with my burrito so I’d say my “eat more produce” goal of ’08 is going fabulously.) Is it not better to set goals for ourselves than it is to be defeated before we have begun? Maybe we need a new year to remind us that we only have so many more to live to their fullest. A New Year can be a fresh start. Yes, it’s a simple change in the calendar, but it can also be a change in lifestyle if we truly grant it that ability. 2012 will be exactly what we make it to be.
And for those of you reading this and guiltily staring at your cheese puff-stained fingers, fret not. “#ibrokemyresolutionwhen” is now trending on Twitter.