The Best Resolution is No Resolution

By Charly Haley
Contributing Writer

New Year’s has always been one of my favorite holidays. I love celebrating on the night of Dec. 31 and I love the idea of “starting fresh” with the optimism and hope that a new year brings. However, I’m not really one for New Year’s resolutions. I used to be, but like many people, I could never stick to them. I feel that as a constantly changing human being, it’s practically impossible for me to come up with a resolution on Jan. 1 and stick to it for an entire year. It’s likely that my priorities will change throughout the year.

Holly Christensen, a dental hygienist in Dilworth, almost perfectly agrees with how I feel about New Year’s resolutions. “It’s too concrete if you have a specific goal,” she said. “I think there’s a psychology behind it.” She described the process of someone making a very specific goal for their New Year’s resolution, and then feeling defeated when they fail to reach that goal. She and fellow Dilworth dental hygienist Kristen Ellenson discussed things that they aspire to do throughout the year, in a general sense. Ellenson said her non-specific resolution is to “better herself” by taking care of her skin, eating better, exercising, spending more quality time with her kids and “letting some things go.” Christensen said she’d like to exercise more and get more sleep but it’s not something she wants to strictly hold herself to.

Molly Flaspohler, a librarian at Concordia, has similar thoughts.
“This year, I wasn’t going to make any resolutions because I didn’t want the pressure,” she said. “I’m just going to do the things everyone tries to do.” She wants to lose a little weight, spend more time with her kids and read more. “Overall, I just try to be a better person,” Flaspohler said. Many people, on the other hand, strive to maintain specific goals as part of the New Year’s tradition. Christensen says her husband aims to lose 15 pounds by Feb. 15, in time for their family vacation. Leroy Woinarowicz, a retired Moorhead resident, strives to “not spend so much money on (lottery) tickets and lose some weight.” Attempting to stick to a strict and desired goal is admirable, but it just doesn’t work for me. MSUM professors Stephen Hamrick and Jeremy Carney shed some insight onto why I may not like making specific New Year’s resolutions, as they don’t make resolutions either. “I don’t structure my life that way,” Carney said. He commented that on the university schedule, New Year’s sort of just falls in with the rest of winter break. With a new year comes a new semester, automatically full new changes, as a fresh start. Being a student, I fall into the same schedule as Carney, therefore, my life is structured similarly when it comes to school and work.

“I enjoy what I do very much,” Hamrick said. He noted that he’s very happy with the way things are in his life and doesn’t necessarily feel the need to make resolutions to change what he’s already happy with. What Hamrick said is the core of why I think it’s best to not make New Year’s resolutions, or at least that’s what works best for me. I am also content with the way things are in my life, and I don’t feel that I should impose strict goals upon myself. Of course, I agree with Christensen, Ellenson and Flaspohler in the idea of generally trying to be a better person, but I think that is something everyone should try to do, regardless of what date it is. However, New Year’s does pose a nice atmosphere, which is why I enjoy the holiday so much. It lends itself toward “starting over,” with feelings of optimism and hope. So, to everyone with or without New Year’s resolutions: Happy New Year and best wishes for 2012. I hope it’s lovely.

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