By Gabriel Brogan

It’s a new year, and a new you. Or is it? There’s a lot of expectation around the new year, especially in the form of New Year’s resolutions. Many of us think we can suddenly turn a corner and improve ourselves with good habits and long-term goals, but the reality is fairly discouraging. 

Unsurprisingly, most New Year’s resolutions fail. Many of us can relate to setting ambitious goals for the new year, and then giving up by the end of January. According to the Fisher College of Business, out of 34% of Americans who set a New Year’s resolution for 2023, 23% quit by the end of the first week of January. 43% quit by the end of the month. Only a slim 9% of New Year’s resolutions were held until the end of the year. 

So if those statistics are accurate, 91% of resolution-setting Americans are united in failure. Many of them share goals as well. Most New Year’s resolutions involve improving health in some way, shape, or form. According to Forbes, the most common resolutions of 2023 were improved fitness (48% of resolution setters), improved mental health (36%), weight loss (34%), and improved diet (32%). 

However, all of these statistics are for the general public. How do they compare to McCaskey students’ own New Year’s goals, success rates, and failures? In a survey conducted of the McCaskey student body, 70% of McCaskey students surveyed said they set a New Year’s Resolution this year, a rate of resolution frequency twice as high as that in the general public. McCaskey students’ goals, unsurprisingly, involved a lot more school. McCaskey’s New Year’s resolutions ranged from scoring well on the SAT to spending more time with family, but a few stood out. 

McCaskey 3 most popular New Year’s resolutions were to: improve grades (23%), improve mental health/reduce stress (20%), and exercise more (15%). That said, New Year’s resolutions set by McCaskey students were far more diverse than those set by most Americans. 

McCaskey New Year’s resolutions were up this year, as only 37% percent of students remembered setting a resolution for 2023. Of those that did set resolutions last year, exercise was overwhelmingly the most popular, with weight loss and “to survive” coming in second and third place. 21% of last year’s resolutions were successful, well over twice the success rate of the general population. 

So what does this tell us? Despite the accusations of being lazy by parents, teachers and staff, McCaskey students are actually more motivated than the average americans when it comes to New Year’s Resolutions. 

Though McCaskey students more frequently complete their New Year’s resolutions, are New Year’s resolutions worthwhile? Even with McCaskey’s heightened success rate, 21% of New Year’s resolutions succeeding means the vast majority of them still fail. 46% of students responding to this question gave a definitive yes, that they thought New Year’s resolutions were worth it. Only 17% gave a definitive no. The other 37% had a qualifying answer. Ruby Gardner-Vale, a 9th grader, summarizes many of the McCaskey communities’ mixed opinions. “New Year’s resolutions have not been effective because most people do not stick to their resolutions. I think that New Year’s resolutions make people look like they are willing to work hard to improve something, when in reality, they just want to look good.”

Many others thought that setting goals in general is positive, but doing it particularly at the start of a New Year won’t increase its likelihood of success. Some students suggested a more nuanced approach to goal setting, in which it wasn’t framed as an all-or-nothing New Year’s resolution to either succeed at or fail. One survey taker recommended “New Year’s suggestions” to reduce the pressure of classic resolutions. 

It’s true that any improvement is better than none at all. Instead of setting an unattainable goal and quitting one week in, students reported far more success with low-pressure goals set at any time. Relying on the misleading feeling of new beginnings with the New Year may just lead to early burnout. One anonymous 10th grader summed up this sentiment. “Don’t wait for the new year. Just set a resolution.”