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It is a commonly spoken fact that most, if not all of our New Year's resolutions will at some point within the first month of the year come undone. We wake up on January 1st,full of promises of healthy sleeping habits, balanced diets and a regular sleeping schedule. Fast forward to 31 days later, and it’s as if this short lived reformation had never existed in the first place and we find ourselves returning to our previous lifestyles. Even amongst the strong minded it is only a matter of time, maybe stretching out their New Year burst of motivation to mid-February if they’re lucky.
In celebration of the New Year’s celebrations, I chose to conduct a mini study on which I could write my article. In order to see whether the taboo against New Years’ resolutions really exists, I asked 35 of my schoolmates how motivated they felt on a weekly basis between the 1st and 31st of January.
On week one, 28 out of the 35 students felt confident in keeping to their resolutions, with an average score of 7.5 out of 10 to rate their level of certainty.
This increased to 8.3 out of 10 on Week two, though the number of students feeling sure of their dedication dropped slightly to a still-respectable 25 out of 35.
Week three was when numbers took a swift downhill, reaching an astonishing 12 out of 35 with an average confidence score of 4.
The fourth and final week of the month heralded the close of the experiment, celebrated with a further decrease to 5 out of the original 35 who still felt confident that they would keep to their New Year’s resolutions through the year. However, the average score of confidence increased, rising to a 5.2 out of 10.
”It was easy in the beginning.” says Thisumi Herath Mudiyanselage, a Year 10 student who partook in the study, “It was towards the middle of the month when things began to go downhill.”
The results of my mini study clearly revealed my answer, that the bad press around New Year’s resolutions was indeed no hoax, and that it truly is near impossible to carry on our motivated streak throughout the year. On the other hand, a small handfull of students did manage to keep their resolutions throughout the entirety of January, proving it to be a difficult, but by all means still possible feat. As well as this, the last week of January saw a surprising increase in average motivation ratings, suggesting that perhaps some of the students may be trying to add a fresh start to their February, and once again taking up the challenge of changing their lifestyle for the better.