Every year, when the calendar turns to January 1st, many Campolindo students embrace the idea of “New Year, New Me.” It’s a time when optimism runs high, and the potential for personal growth feels limitless. The fresh start of a new year feels like the perfect time to set ambitious goals, break bad habits, and finally become the person you’ve always wanted to be. Campolindo students have already made impressive lists of New Year’s resolutions. But what do they actually think about the New Year?
Most start the year motivated with big dreams, but the length of twelve months becomes both a blessing and a curse. The enormous amount of time can give a false lack of urgency. Most students tend to procrastinate not only over homework but also with their goals, eventually losing focus as the months tick by. Sophomore Kayla Moon explains, “Oftentimes if you set [a goal] in January. It’s hard to remember to keep working towards it every day for the rest of the year.” This lack of urgency is why most students have already lost track of our resolutions and, now in March, find themselves stuck repeating the same old habits.
Many Campolindo students wonder why it’s difficult to break this cycle of inefficiency. Freshman Diana Cardenas says it’s because of the “new year, new me, fresh start mindset.” The allure of a fresh start is motivating, but unrealistic. Motivation is like a dream: short and sweet – and a falsehood. Similarly, the expectation that a person’s life will magically change at the stroke of midnight is absurd. “I feel like generally with the new year, a lot of people do feel hopeful. They want to make this their best year yet. And they obviously set goals, which don’t always happen,” Moon comments.
Cardenas and Moon both believe that quarterly goals are smaller and more achievable objectives than the lofty New Year’s resolutions that most Campo students abandon. “I think quarterly goals are good. More short-term things are probably easier to stay on top of,” she says, a sentiment many students can agree with. Instead of attempting to reinvent your entire life on a small, ambitious list, why not focus on manageable milestones?
The issue with New Year's resolutions is that they often set teens up for failure. While Kayla Moon agrees that “It’s always good to have a goal that you’re working towards,” she also notes that during a year filled with sports and school “there’s also a lot of time that can be wasted.” There’s nothing wrong with the hope and optimism that comes with setting goals at the start of a new year, but it’s important to recognize that these goals must be approachable, achievable, and adaptable for every student.
Quarterly goals are a far better alternative to reshaping our lives. They maintain the urgency that year-long resolutions lack and offer flexibility to change over the course of a year between school and summer. By breaking the year into smaller segments, it’s easier to keep track of progress.
Life is full of changes. And as people evolve, so do their goals. New Year’s resolutions shouldn’t be the only time we hit the reset button. Resetting can be a choice that happens on any given occasion such as a new semester, or the start of a sports season. Campolindo students should embrace the idea that personal growth is a continuous process and remember that you don’t have to wait for the New Year to reset your life.
