ZOE ROGERS / OPINION EDITOR

The views expressed in the editorial and op-ed sections are not necessarily those of  The USD Vista staff, the University of San Diego or its student body.

New Year’s resolutions inspire people to turn their lives around. Creating a resolution seems like the perfect way to implement a new healthy lifestyle into your year. Feeling like you’re not active enough? Make a resolution to workout five times a week. Do you think you spend too much time on your phone? Be more intentional in doing other activities that don’t involve a screen, such as reading. While New Year’s resolutions are a good idea, they’re not always effective. 

Coming into the third week of February, people often give up on their resolutions, whether they lacked the motivation to execute or the goals were not as easily achievable as people realized. Instead of setting a goal for the whole year, we should start implementing the practice of healthy daily habits. 

With the excitement of a new year, it’s typical to strive to incorporate a new practice into your life. However, New Year’s resolutions tend to be unrealistic, eventually leading to people giving up their goals within the next month. As for me, I struggled to maintain my resolution, and ended up dropping it entirely once February started. Columbia University, a college located in New York and known for its academic excellence, reported on the percentage of Americans who give up their resolutions just a month into the new year. 

“While nearly half of Americans make New Year’s resolutions, only about 25% of people actually stay committed to their resolutions after just 30 days,” Columbia University stated. “And even fewer, less than 10%, accomplish their goals.” 

Typically, those who strive to create a New Year’s resolution lack any form of accountability in achieving their plan. Failure to create a schedule around your plan decreases the probability that it will stick with you for the duration of the year. 

Shift, a website that brings various apps into one online experience and efficiency to online users, clarified on   why people   tend to give  up on their  resolutions.

“Common reasons resolutions fail include setting unrealistic expectations, lack of accountability, and insufficient planning,” Shift explained. “The excitement of a new year can quickly fade, leading to feelings of frustration and discouragement when progress stalls.”

Instead of relying on one big goal to set for the entirety of the year, setting daily habits is the perfect alternative. A daily habit doesn’t have to be a big commitment; it can be a small thing to practice every day that eventually turns into a way of life. For example, if you feel like you’re spending too much time on electronics, read 10  pages of a book every day. Instead of saying “I need to become more fit,” try going on a 10 to 20 minute walk every day. 

These little habits can turn into daily occurrences that will change your way of life for the better. In an interview for CBS News, Justin Hale,  a speaker and trainer, explained why it’s important to create daily habits instead of resolutions.

“The problem is people, when they want to be better in the new year, they never focus on understanding what are the exact behaviors that I need to be done to turn into habits, and what’s the plan I’m going to create to make that thing habitual,” Hale explained. 

Daily habits should be small, intentional practices that can be achieved on a smaller scale in order to ensure success. The easier the habit is, the more likely you’ll practice it every day. 

While daily habits are a good idea, they can also often be unrealistic, like their resolution counterpart. Expecting  someone to practice an activity every day may not actually be achievable if they don’t make a smart habit. Having a New Year’s resolution can make someone more goal oriented, more so when they have one big dream of an accomplishment hanging over their head. Planning on doing things such as going to the gym or reading a book a few times a week is much more realistic than expecting them to do it everyday, especially if that person has a busy schedule.

Being daunted by doing a practice every day is natural, which is why it’s important to choose an easy one to increase the likelihood of you doing it everyday. Personally, I honestly don’t even remember my New Year’s resolution. However, I’ve started implementing daily practices to better my way of life, like limiting packaged snacks. Little improvements in your daily life lead you to creating a healthy lifestyle for yourself.

New Year’s resolutions are unrealistic;  people are  often highly ambitious at the beginning of the new year. However, this ambition is only temporary, and the goals you had for yourself on the first day of January have diminished by the middle or end of February. Instead of having one big goal that you’re expecting yourself to achieve by the end of the year, create  small, daily  habits. You are more likely to keep up with your goal if you make them easy, achievable and everyday tasks. In doing this, you are setting yourself up for success in creating a healthier life for yourself. 

lives on display for the whole world to see, including personal problems like mental illness, and in some cases these problems allow people to take advantage of them, regardless of their wrongful actions. In my opinion, placing celebrities like West on a pedestal and excusing their actions for any reason is detrimental to the impressionable general public, especially young people seeking someone to emulate. 

Rather than feeding the careers of celebrities whose actions are harmful through scandalous news stories, the pedestals they stand on should be removed entirely. Acknowledging the fact that the black swastika shirt that West published on his website is completely unacceptable and hateful is the first step. Removing his ability to continue to spread hateful messages through social media and the news is the second. By writing this article, I am aware that I am giving some kind of leverage to celebrities like West and bringing attention to their actions, but I hope that bringing that attention encourages fans to consider the line between an artist’s creations and their inexcusable behavior.