Photo courtesy of Sean Mayer

Sabiq Reza ‘26

STAFF WRITER

Hey y’all! It’s that time of the year again, and it’s nothing new; people will ask about your New Year’s Resolutions. Let’s be real, though: it’s that one “promise” that you make to yourself every year that results in an abandoned plan or a failed goal. Too often, we find something we need to improve on, tell ourselves we’ll change it, and then succumb to the easier way of achieving it in a few weeks at most. Ouch. New Year’s Resolutions are sad and depressing, but it's time to change that! Here are a few recommendations when setting up resolutions so that we can crush our goals:

Step 1: Find an area of change. And not just the classic “I’ll quit being fake” or “I’ll quit using my phone until 3 am in the morning.” Got it? Great job!

Step 2: Devise a plan. Here’s an acronym that you might’ve heard of before: SMART Goals. This strategy to make plans is not only a suitable acronym, but a life saver. “S” stands for Specific. Try it for yourself; it’s nothing like: “I want good grades,” but more like, “I want all ‘A’s and ‘B’s this year.” 

“M” is for Measurable, as in you can gauge the distance between achieving the goal and the amount of time you have to achieve it. “A” represents Actionable as in, “Can you act on it?”  In other words, that means “can you do it?” “R” is for Realistic. So refrain from, “I wanna date a Disney Princess” or “I wanna date Chris Pine.” Frankly, setting goals out of the realm of reality is ultimately useless. Lastly, “T” means Timely; as in give yourself a final due date and act on it like your teacher is dangling it over your head. 

     Make sure your goal hits these criterias and you’re good to go for the final, Step 3: Get off the couch, put down the phone, and get to work. There’s no point in making a goal if you’re not going to do something to achieve that goal. It doesn’t matter what it is: Brawl Stars, Fortnite, grades, sports, whatever. Do it until you win. . . or don’t: there’s always next year, I guess.