School Year Resolutions

You know how it goes at the end of December. You get together with friends or strangers, watch the glittering ball drop, kiss and toast, wish everyone a happy New Year. Or maybe you eschew the party and go to bed at 10 p.m., which is invariably more enjoyable if you ask me. Either way, you wake up the next day and vow to stick to your resolutions...or actually make some this year.

About half of Americans make New Year's Resolutions. We pledge to start exercising or stop gossiping or finally write that book (you know who you are). We start the year with good intentions to be more positive and drink more water. And this time, this time we're really going to stick to those life changes. We swear.

But about three-quarters of us fail to keep our resolutions. They're too ambitious, too vague, no fun, or we flat-out forget. By late March or mid-February or January 15, those resolutions have become merely wild-eyed dreams we had when we were younger and less naive. 

I have a theory that New Year's resolutions don't stick because they're made at the wrong time of the year. Moving from December 31 to January 1 changes almost nothing. Except for the last two digits of the year, the world is exactly the same as it was yesterday. It's still bitterly cold, dark when you leave for work, dark when you get home. Your routine stays constant. Maybe you turn a page on your calendar, try to remember to write the new year on your checks -- but who uses checks anymore? Other than that, same-old same-old. 

Who has the willpower to wake up one morning and just decide to be a different person -- and actually follow through while everything and everyone else remains fixed? Not many of us, it turns out. 

Times, they are a-changin'

Here's what I propose: let's make new year resolutions not at the beginning of a calendar year, but the beginning of a new school year. 

Big changes are often prompted by big changes. And what other time of year is marked by changes as noticeable as back-to-school season?  Vacations end and pools close. Days grows shorter, the weather begins to cool, and the roads sprout bright yellow school buses again after a summer drought. Maybe you embark on a new routine as you send kids back to school (whether they're going in person or distance learning), or return to your own education. No matter your season in life, fall brings changes.

Autumn is a time of winding down in nature. But for humans, it's a time of starting anew. It makes much more sense to resolve to change your habits now, when things around you are actually changing. 

My School Year Resolution has been exercise. I turned 40 this summer -- another milestone that came and went without any noticeable changes -- and sitting on the couch wishing food didn't have calories isn't cutting it anymore. Along with waking up early and ushering (or pushing) my kids out the door to school, I decided to change my own routine and begin walking on the treadmill a few times a week. 

I won't be running a 5K ever, but I'm moving more than I have during the last six months of COVID-induced cloister. Three weeks in, I've been able to stick to my commitment and I think it's improving my mood and health ever so slightly. At this point, especially with the ongoing difficulties of a pandemic, every little bit counts.

"Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall," F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote. He knows what's up. Let's toast some spiked apple cider and resolve to change for the better right now, while there's still change to be had.