There are two things you can be certain of when New Year’s Eve ends: buying a new calendar and the majority of people clamoring about their New Year’s resolutions.

I find the reasoning for, obsession with and implication of New Year’s resolutions annoying and unnerving.

First and foremost I should mention that I did in fact make no resolutions this year

A study conducted in 2007 by Richard Wisemen from the University of Bristol showed that 78 percent of people who made a New Year’s resolution failed to complete it. This statistic alone is enough for me to base my entire argument on; however, this is not what I want to branch off from.

My concern with resolutions at the beginning of a new year comes from this fervor that people feel. I compare the fervor of resolutions to the “fire” people feel when they return from a church camp, and yes, I’ve attended one before.

The first 2 or 3 weeks, people have been instilled with this desire to change and at the time they truly mean it. The problem lies with allowing themselves to be delusional and impacted by the image society impresses upon them.

By this I mean we can agree people make resolutions on changing their physical appearance or things linked with it.

I believe that resolutions are like Valentines, Mother’s and Father’s Day: commercially created and driven holidays. Invariably people cannot accomplish their goals on their own. So, they buy countless products and passes and work with trainers in order to achieve such a goal.

Partly, the concern comes from the fact that fewer people make a resolution because they really want to change. Instead, this resolution is made because all of those around them are. It’s fun to target things you are inadequate about.

Taking a serious assessment of what you are trying to change will go a long way. You have to ask yourself if you’ve been doing something for two or three years or even longer, will you be able to change it in two or three months, or even a year?

You have to be able to accept the fact that the change will not come over night. Even when it does come, you will fight your whole life to keep yourself from going back. A New Year’s resolution is a life commitment. It’s not enough to mean it; you have to believe in it.