Getting smart about your New Year’s resolutions

By ALANNA RICE
Staff Writer

I resolve to keep my New Year’s resolution. But does anyone else follow through with them?

Time magazine reported last year that the most popular resolutions are also the most commonly broken.

Losing weight, quitting smoking, learning something new and eating more healthfully are all notoriously given up each year.

several Niagara College students offered suggestions for staying on track.

Mike Lee reported a smartphone can be the answer in achieving your resolutions.

Posting goals and resolutions for friends and followers to see online can help keep you on track and motivated to succeed.

He also recommends using your phone to motivate with music and help track your progress with apps.

Some students have differing opinions whether this is something they could get behind.

Holly Phillips says if you care what other people think about your goals then social networks would help and add “more appeal” to keep resolutions.

She says technology and social media sites are all about “instant gratification” and may help people feel they are achieving their goals.

Phillips, 20, says she never makes New Year’s resolutions, nor will she this year. “Nobody sticks to them.”

Krysta Putman says she makes resolutions each year and tries to achieve her goals. She adds that some people “need a boost” to get motivated and use New Year’s resolutions “as a catalyst to change your life.”

Putman, 23, says using technology to help with resolutions can help. If “more people know [your goals], you’re less likely to fail.”

Brady Beruble says he rarely makes resolutions each New Year. When he does, “I don’t keep them.”

Beruble, 19, says using technology and social media sites to help with resolutions can be “helpful or detrimental.”

He says groups on sites such as Facebook could lead someone to break their resolutions rather than keep them.

Troy Roberts says he never makes New Year’s resolutions.

“I don’t see a purpose doing it once a year.”

Instead, Roberts makes resolutions throughout the year when needed.

Roberts, 31, says resolutions are important for others. “If it works for them, why not?”

For him using technology can help “keep it [resolutions] top of mind” and act as a “form of encouragement.”

He adds he has used technology to help him with his goals in the past. “It does help.”

Melissa Charlesworth, 35, says she used to make New Year’s resolutions when she was younger, but now when she needs something to be done, she does it right away.

“Looking at your life and making positive changes are important.”

She says using technology “depends on the person” and may be “distracting” for some.

For herself, “technology isn’t going to make much of a difference.”