New Year's Resolutions - The Troubles in Timing

As we usher in 2018 as a brand new year, the APB writer's team decided to go around asking for opinions on the significance of new year's resolutions. Are you for or against the idea of a "new year, new me" outlook on life? Here are some of the responses we have received: 

NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS

The Troubles in Timing

Written by: Sophia Adelina binti Mohd Faisal, Foundation in Business (April '17 Cohort)

I didn't make any new year's resolutions this year.  

Ever since I was 17, I decided once and for all (or, until I make some other life-changing self-discovery later on in life) to stop pretending like I would stay on that bandwagon. I'm well-aware that as people count the days for the minute hand to meet the hour on the night of December 31st, they overestimate themselves. They list down a number of things to accomplish that, if I'm honest, are completely achievable.

Once the clock strikes 12, fireworks aren't the only things that blast off into the night. Just like many of their champagne glasses, people raise their expectations and are absolutely confident that they'll start their change when morning comes. I think of it as a sort of reverse-Cinderella effect - once midnight strikes, everyone believes they'll get a burst of magic and motivation pumping through their veins and will wake up with six-pack abs and heavy breakfast with every food group on the plate (at the right proportions, of course!).

That being said, I'm not totally against the concept of setting a list of goals to reach during the next 12 months to come. The fact that you have these resolutions at all means that you know that there's something about yourself that needs change. You see that there is much room for you to improve, from many different angles, and you want to work on yourself for the better - so what better time than New Year's? 

I see New Year's as an excuse. 

Speaking from experience, the number of things about myself that I need to fix are uncountable. I wasn't happy with how I looked, or how my eating habits made me feel, or how my poor time management skills will come bite me one day - the list is endless. Of course, because of these, I had made new year's resolutions - who hasn't, right? 

It's the idea that New Year's Day is the moment for you to emerge from that chrysalis. 

Before the twelve bongs of the clock, while people think of what to achieve in the new year, they're simultaneously doing everything against what they have planned in the year. Want to get fit? Eat your weight in sugar and bad fats. Want to be studious to get straight A's? Take your honey-sweet time to slack and do anything but study. Want to stop swearing? Fill up your cuss-word quota as many times as you want.

'Eh, I'll do it later,' is what they really mean.

Procrastinating on reaching your goals and blaming it on New Year's Resolutions is what everyone does and/or will do, and I know this first-hand. I remember being 14 and saying, "I'll start studying after New Year for PT3," as I mindlessly watched YouTube videos for hours and hours.   

Now, I believe that if you really want to achieve something, you'd start as soon as you can. 

I no longer believe in New Year's Resolutions because I don't think there should be a special set time to fulfil your dreams. I think that if one truly wanted to change for the better, they wouldn't find excuses to postpone taking action to change. They wouldn't wait for the one over-glorified second that starts off the new year to want to improve themselves. 

I believe in Day-to-Day Resolutions. 

I may not do it in physical practice, but I know that there will always be things about myself that I need to improve or change. Every day, I think of what could be wrong with me, or what other people might find irritating or bothersome - not to mope about it, but to work upon it. When you know your strengths and weaknesses and the pace you go for progress, you could make small changes about yourself everyday. 

Sure, you'll have the comfort of knowing that everyone will be starting the year trying to achieve near-similar goals, but you don't have to go with the flow. You don't need to wait for New Year's Day to become a better person - heck, you don't need any special occasion to start working. 

As long as you're striving to develop or improve for your own sake, there's no such thing as waiting for the right time. In the words of Shia LaBeouf;