At Stroke of Midnight, New Year Provides a Clean Slate For Elusive Resolutions
NEW YORK (NEWSnet/AP) — For many, it’s an annual end-of-year exercise in futility. But a clean slate awaits at the stroke of midnight for the next round of resolutions.
From the first spray of fireworks to the closing chorus of “Auld Lang Syne” 366 days into the future (2024 is a leap year) it could be the year for achieving long-elusive goals, fulfilling aspirations and being resolute on those New Year resolutions.
“As humans, we are creatures that aspire,” said Omid Fotuhi, a social psychologist who is a motivation and performance researcher. “The fact that we have goals, the fact that we want to set goals is just a manifestation of that internal and almost universal desire to want to stretch, to want to reach, to want to expand and grow.”
Fotuhi isdirector of learning innovation at Western Governors University Labs and a research associate at University of Pittsburgh.
“New Year’s resolutions are one of those ways in which we do that,” he said. “There’s something very liberating about a fresh start. Imagine starting on a blank canvas. Anything is possible.”
If so, could this be the year to run a marathon, vanquish foes such as the bathroom scale? Learn a new language? So many questions, and so much time to delay.
At one time, Tim Williams issued himself a panoply of resolutions: lose weight, drink less, exercise more. Now, he doesn't bother.
“In the past, I would make them, and I would fail or give up on them or whatever,” said Williams, a part-time resident of Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Josh Moore, also a Fort Lauderdale resident, sees things in line with Sir Isaac Newton and physics. For every action, there must be an equal reaction.
“If you do something like eat a bunch of candy or a bunch of desserts at a holiday party, go run,” he said while interrupting a jog with his dog. “Maybe you went out drinking too much and you might have a hangover. But then next day when you’re feeling better, go to the gym.”
Too many people are too soft on themselves, he said.
“You’ve got to actually hold yourself accountable.”
Resolutions don't have to be grandiose or overly ambitious, Fotuhi said.
Even it they are, value should not derive exclusively from the achievement but also measured by what you become by trying, he said.
“Goals are only there to serve a function to get you started,” Fotuhi said. “If they don’t do that, then maybe that’s not the appropriate goal for you."
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