Students commit to resolutions

By Amy Bernstein

With the start of a new year, several people began thinking about changes they want to make in their lives; changes that will make the upcoming year better or will improve their personality. Common New Year's resolutions among Santa Clara students include: more frequent gym visits, eating healthier, working harder, weight loss, getting organized and spending more time with friends and family.

Most of the time New Year's resolutions are set as personal goals for the individual, normally reflecting a change of habit from earlier years. Junior Salman Janjua made the resolution that he would not drink soda, eat healthier and exercise more often.

Freshman Berkeley Fial's resolution is different from the common resolutions of the physical healthy lifestyle.

"I told myself that this year that everything I did would be for my own personal self and not because it is to please others," she said.

While some are optimistic and make the effort to make and carry out resolutions, some choose not to participate because of failed prior experiences.

According to lifehacker.com, there are many ways a person can be loyal to their resolution. For starters, the individual can set a goal lower than their intended goal so that their final destination seems more approachable. For example, if an individual has the goal of losing 30 pounds, they can tell themselves their resolution is to shed 10 to 15 pounds.

Second on the list of keeping a resolution is to avoid overloading. Naturally, it is hard enough to keep one resolution so one who is looking to stay committed to their goal should stick to one and not fill their plate with three or four, which may all become unattainable. In addition, it helps to tell as many people as you know. While many people find it better to keep their resolutions a secret, it is better to announce it to friends and family to gain support in obtaining your goal.

Finally, if the sailing is smooth and getting over the obstacles has been easy, one should cut themselves some slack and treat themselves as an incentive to keep pushing.

Among college students the resolutions to cut back on drinking or quit smoking seemed less common. The most popular was to be healthier followed by spending more time with friends and family and doing better in school. Also, most stated that they usually make more than one resolution and try to improve their lives in several different ways. However, most admitted that they didn't follow through the whole year.

Life got busy or they just sank back into their old habits again. Some said they kept their resolutions for a couple of months while others said they only kept them for a few weeks.

Some students even made it the half way point and followed through on a resolution for sixth months, but I didn't find any students who kept their resolution the whole year.

Year after year people make the same resolutions hoping they can make their resolution reality.

Even though students did not follow through on their resolutions last year, the hope still lingers as the try again each Jan. 1.

Kaveri Gyanendra contributed to this story. Contact Amy Bernstein at abernstein@scu.edu or (408)-551-1918.