At the beginning of 2024, like many others, Eva Zoyes ’28 made a New Year’s Resolution.
“My resolution was to start going to the gym more often,” Zoyes said. “I stuck with it. My dad definitely pushed me to work harder.”
Now, almost two years later, waking up early to go to the Neighborhood Club gym with her dad before school has become part of her weekly routine. For Zoyes, this simple change to her behavior has created a multitude of positive changes in her life.
“I think if you really put your mind to something you want to do, then you can achieve it,” Zoyes said. “It all depends on whether you have a good mindset going into it.”
New Year’s resolutions are personal promises to start or stop a habit in the new year, usually focusing on improving health, life and behavior. Christopher Booth, a history teacher at South, often uses resolutions as a method of self-improvement as a new year begins.
“You look at the last year and you see a deficiency,” Booth said. “You want to go at it but it’s easier said than done.”
Kevin Cox, an English teacher at South, believes that to make resolutions achievable, proper thought and planning should be put into their creation.
“If you feel like you have to do a New Year’s resolution, it might not be as effective as something that you genuinely want to do or want to change,” Cox said.
The pressure to create resolutions can also impact the sanctity of the goals created. For many, they end up sounding vague and lack a plan that will make them achievable. Zoyes agrees that unrealistic goals will cause people to lose motivation.
“Doing something that in the beginning you don’t think is realistic for you, then it won’t work out,” Zoyes said. “That’s why New Year’s resolutions and goals fail.”
Resolutions can have a big influence on people, according to a Forbes Health survey, 62 percent of respondents felt pressured to set a New Year’s resolution. While feeling influenced to make a lifestyle change can be beneficial, South’s school psychologist Lisa Khoury believes that with the wrong intentions behind resolutions, they lose their efficiency.
“[New Year’s] can be a time to reset and do something positive,” Khoury said. “It depends on who you’re doing it for. If you’re doing it for yourself, then that could be a positive thing.”
While being overly influenced by others can be harmful to long-term success, Cox believes that some healthy pressure can allow for resolutions to become habits as the year continues.
“From what I’ve read, resolutions can be more meaningful if you talk with someone who is going to hold you accountable,” Cox said.
Another option besides New Year’s resolutions that is gaining traction is vision boards. Instead of verbally announcing plans and hopes for the new year, many chose to create collages of photos and quotes that resonate with the goals that they want to achieve. Booth shares that writing ideas down helps them to feel more real and achievable.
“There’s some power in writing them [goals] down, so you can visualize and can see it, right?” Booth said. “If you don’t write it
down, it’s something that you will forget about.”
Eva Wieczorek ’26 suggests that another one of the most effective ways to achieve goals in the new year is by structuring them in specific and realistic ways. By formulating her goals in this way, she is allowed the ability to stay committed and motivated throughout the year.
“I create smaller and more, as I see it, achievable [resolutions],” Wieczorek said. “Like, I’m going to drink four bottles of water [a day], simple things.”
Similarly, Booth creates his own resolutions yearly. As 2026 draws closer, he is planning to focus on his children and the influence of technology.
“I think the resolution this year is going to be being really mindful, I have a four-year-old and a two-year-old,” Booth said. “No TV at dinner. I’ve got to be mindful of the iPad they have.”
However, despite the purpose of New Year’s resolutions to last throughout the year, the aforementioned Forbes Health survey also found that the average commitment to a resolution lasts just 3.74 months. Booth has also noticed a regular drop in commitment to New Year’s resolutions as the year progresses. He argues that the popularization of resolutions in American culture has caused people to start them with less motivation and fail to keep them up throughout the entire year.
“I think it’s [New Year’s resolutions] are just a tradition that Americans do,” Booth said. “That’s why everyone buys gym memberships in January and then by Feb. 1, they don’t go anymore.”
This opinion is supported by the same Forbes Health survey, which states that 23 percent of participants abandoned their resolution after one week and only 36 percent made it past the first month. Logan Okonoski ’27, who has never made a New Year’s resolution for himself, also believes that resolutions often fail. As an avid gym member, Okonoski said he notices a large increase in attendance at the start of each year.
“I’d give them a month,” Okonoski said. “People are losers. People are not motivated, that’s the problem.”
A Pew Research Center survey found that 79 percent of New Year’s resolutions involve health, meaning that gyms can often become crowded as the year begins. However, Zoyes has also seen firsthand how these new health habits, especially those of people at her gym, can dwindle as the weeks of January tick by.
“The busiest months of the gym are definitely early January,” Zoyes said. “I usually tend not to go to the gym that week or go less because people are everywhere, every single treadmill is taken, every single machine is taken. There’s nothing left.”
Booth believes that the failures of difficult resolutions, such as those that are health-related, often go back to a lack of commitment. While writing down a simple goal can be easy, putting in the work to achieve it takes time and dedication.
“When people want to lose 15 pounds, that’s something that takes a lot of consistency in your work,” Booth said. “But people aren’t willing to do these things. You have got to change your behavior and it’s hard for people to change their behaviors.”
Khoury suggests that this type of failure in changing behavior further reflects a lack of planning.
“Planning and hoping are two different things,” Khoury said. “Planning’s more effective.”
Despite the debate over the effectiveness and longevity of resolutions, Khoury believes they can be successful if an individual truly wants to improve. By putting in the time to find a plan that assists them, goals can become easier to reach and stick with throughout the year.
“To make a more effective resolution or to make something happen is to make a plan that is more long-term,” Khoury said. “Also to have a behavior activation plan where you’re making a long-term commitment to something, that is months and months and months in the making.”
Zoyes believes that the issue with New Year’s resolutions has less to do with the concept and more to do with the execution itself. She sees resolutions as a potentially successful tool to encourage a positive change in the new year.
“Resolutions are a good idea,” Zoyes said. “But it all depends on what goals you have for yourself and if you think they’re achievable throughout the year.”
