Resolutions We Can Keep

Spectator

By Stephen Tuttle | Dec. 23, 2023

Are you making New Year’s resolutions this year? If so, you won’t be alone.

A 2022 poll by YouGov said 37 percent of us make resolutions or goals for the new year, and we’re pretty optimistic about it; a whopping 87 percent said they were likely to keep those resolutions or meet their goals. Uh-huh.

Anyone who goes to a gym knows that’s pretty unlikely. The crowd that shows up the first week of January, derisively referred to as The Resolvers, are nearly all gone by February, and there is proof of that phenomenon. Research by the Fisher College of Business at Ohio State has determined only 9 percent of those making resolutions actually completed those goals. Fully 23 percent don’t make it beyond the first week, and 43 percent give up on their resolutions by the end of January.

Despite our inability to successfully complete our resolutions, we’re pretty optimistic about the future. Chicago-based PR Newswire says 74 percent of us think 2024 will be better than 2023, but 46 percent said they are likely to change their spending habits due to increased prices on many necessities.

And we’re going right back to making resolutions to lose weight, quit smoking, exercise more, save money, and all the usual goals we’ve found so hard to achieve in the past. Some will persevere and be able to pat themselves on the back for a resolution well completed.

There are easier resolutions to both make and fulfill requiring less willpower and simpler intentions.

For example, we could resolve to stop believing conspiracy theories for which there is neither evidence nor facts. Continuing to believe the nonsense makes us part of the problem and likely lowers our IQ considerably.

We can resolve to stop listening to and start completely ignoring politicians who constantly lie to us. Electing truth-tellers, even when they sometimes have to deliver unpleasant honesty, benefits all of us.

Before we start ignoring them, we could resolve to demand politicians actually prove what they’re claiming. When they can’t, we should resolve to then ignore them and vote for someone else.

We could resolve to move more and sit less. Research from the University of Michigan indicates almost any physical movement is beneficial, and as little as three minutes of movement per hour is helpful. Just getting up and wandering around the house for a few minutes is easy and good for us.

We could resolve to watch a little less television on any platform and read a bit more. Television, whether traditional programming or streaming, likes to think for us, but reading encourages us to think and imagine for ourselves.

We could resolve to give a little to a reliable local or national charitable organization. It doesn’t have to be much—even a few bucks helps, especially now that the holidays are ending and so many organizations are nearly tapped out. (Check with a reliable rating organization like Charity Navigator to make sure your contribution is being used wisely.)

For goodness sake, let us resolve to spend less time on our phones and way less time on social media. There are now volumes of research on the potentially negative impact of social media. Sure, there are responsible users and valuable uses of social media, but the harm, especially for younger people, seems to outweigh the good. HelpGuide.org has broken it down for us: social media, particularly for teens, increases the risk for depression, anxiety, self-harm, loneliness, and suicidal thoughts. Then there’s the whole credibility issue and outright lies, hate speech, invasion of privacy, account hacking, and identity theft.

We need to resolve to ignore and encourage others to ignore hateful podcasts, online sites, and social media. Seeking and observing the ugliness makes us complicit in it. Racism, misogyny, antisemitism, and all the other hateful isms feed on ignorance, so we should resolve to be smart enough to recognize and reject them.

We could resolve to look for solutions, maybe after we get through complaining. Recognizing and pointing out a wrong can be a useful start to a solution, but it can’t be the end point. And most solutions start with individuals getting involved.

This is an especially odd new year because there seems to be as much dread as hope. Some even believe our country’s survival hangs in the balance. But we were born in revolution and have survived a civil war, world wars, presidential assassinations, and all manner of bumbling, incompetent do-nothing politicians; we’ll probably survive whatever 2024 has to offer.

Especially if we resolve to be kind to each other.