Monday, October 10, 2011

Rationalism: take three

Do you make New Year's resolutions?  What are they?  Do you think making a resolution is a beneficial way to improve yourself? 

24 comments:

  1. I personally don't make New Year resolutions seeing as they last like a week before there totally forgotten. However I do believe that making resolutions is beneficial because it makes the person look at himself and decide what needs improvement and what doesn't.

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  2. New Year’s resolutions are a huge deal at my house. Every week after Christmas we sit down as a family and make goals for the following year. Some of these resolutions are about the whole family but most of them are individual. The resolutions we make are meant to better ourselves. This varies from setting a goal to practice every day, be kinder to one another or make sure we spend time with one another. We also print out our goals and place them all over the house, to make sure we remember and work on them. I think making resolutions are a great way to improve yourself. If you complete a goal not only do you feel accomplished but you also better your character.

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  3. I make resolutions and try to make a list short enough for me to remember, but long enough to have some substance. Usually my resolutions will be about friends, or school. Sometimes they're about more personal, kind of "internal" issues I want to overcome. I think new years resolutions are a very beneficial way to try and improve character, because it's almost a promise to yourself that you're going to at least try and make a change for the better in your life.

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  4. New Years Resolutions are beneficial, in the aspect that they allow people to set in stone a clear goal they have in mind to improve themselves/ their life in some way, shape, or form, for the upcoming year. Many people need a starting point to go off from (New Years)when trying to make a change, as well as a clean slate (A full 12 months to achieve their goal, with nothing in past year holding them back), and no excuses; which would be translating their good intentions down on paper, so they can not deny their goals if later on they fail to reach them. It also tests your self will, with your dedication to keeping up with ways to slowly get a step closer to you goal, not let themselves down and to see it through to the end. New Years resolutions for me usually revolve around being a better person and improving my life, wether that be spending more time with my family, a sports aspiration, a academia bar to exceed, or being more balanced. All and all, New years resolutions are an opportunity for people to take advantage of and benefit from.

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  5. Personally, I do make New Year's resolutions and find them beneficial. Basically, my resolutions include goals pertaining for short term and long term affects. For example, they are usually about school, friends, family, and other activities I do. I believe that New Year's resolutions are very valuable and useful to ones life because it encourages you to actually accomplish something and make a change for the better.

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  6. Every year, I do make new year's resolutions. Most years they are about eating more vegetables and less sugary foods or making a better effort in a class that I'm falling behind in. The resolutions about my classes usually stick through the end of the school year because I realize that I need to stick to it to maintain a good grade to finish the school year. However, the resolutions about eating better typically drift away around June. They stay as long as they do because I don't want to let myself down. But as the year goes on, I slip up once or twice, then three or four times. Eventually it all comes to a point where I'm back to where I started. I do think that making resolutions are a beneficial way to improve if you have the mind set that you don't want to let yourself down. You just need to make sure to keep that mind set so you don't just give up.

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  7. New Year's Resolutions for me really just set that goal that you feel needs to be accomplished to help yourself do better in order to have that peace of mind, sound, and body. The real objective is that each resolution seems to be on a time limit, because for each that is not reached the year it was made, it shows that you set it off for too long or maybe some things are possibly out of your ability to finish, and for me is only reason more to try harder because there is always next year. For example, it could be to do volunteer hours over the summer, join new clubs/sports, try to make it into this year's school play, get above a 4.0 grade-point-average, and finish all my hours of driving time, yet those are only a few of mine. Yet it does benefit me, because it only reminds me that these are things that I promised myself I would at least try, and the forces myself to start with all my ability, and eventually finish because I always need to finish what I have started.

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  8. New Year's Resolutions are a time for me to really reflect on the previous year and think about what I love in my life and what I would like to change. Sometimes it is almost as if by thinking about it, I can understand what I find most important in my life. And yet, for some reason, the resolutions that I find most important are the ones I find myself needing to make again and again. For example, every time I sit down and think about what I could to to improve my life, the first thing that comes to mind is to be less stressed. Every time I write it down, every time I try to calm my stress, but then every year there I am again making the same promise to myself.
    I think that New Year's makes everything fresh, that it makes it okay to hope yet again that you will be able to do something you never have been able to do before. It is a chance to set new goals, to start anew, and to feel proud of myself. It is one of those moments where you feel as though you are both in the past and the future, both able to reflect and to change, as though this were the tipping point on which we could see both sides and decide what roads to take before the fog of another year descends and we begin the adventure of life yet again with only the goals we have set to guide us until we can stop once more to reflect and to change.

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  9. I feel as though New Years Resolutions are a very good thing. They give people a chance to change themselves for the better. However, I do feel that they are a little superficial and a lot of the time people only change things that they think they need to change about themselves. Every year I do make resolutions some are to keep my grades up and eat healthy, and some are deeper and personal that I keep to my self. I know that it can help me improve myself but only if I stick to it and follow through on what I said I was going to do.

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  10. I personally do not make New Year's resolutions, but I do believe that if there is something about yourself that you want to change it would be a nice time to change it, like a fresh start. If you are dedicated enough to the resolution and the change is beneficial, then the resolution is worth it, but if you aren't, then there really isn't a point to the resolution in the first place. New Year's resolutions are really just circumstantial and only effective with certain people. Although, I do 100% believe that if you really want to change something then it would be best to start right away instead of waiting for a new year to start.

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  11. I have found that making a so called "New Year's" resolution is not the way to go. I do not really believe at all in resolutions. A resolution implies that the problem will be efficiently and completely solved. However, in most cases this is not achievable. I find that making ranged goals is much more productive. Making a goal does not need a specific date. A New Year's resolution seems to fade after the first few weeks of the year. One might even find that most of the time, New Year's resolutions are not achieved. Think to the last New Year. You could probably think of a hundred resolutions you heard that were never achieved. In fact, New Year's resolutions have almost become some what of a joke. A goal however is something achieved every day. When a goal is set, people are much more intent on meeting that goal. Think about the goals you make. You meet them all the time. Bringing me to believe that New Year's resolutions are even more meaningless. Think if you only got to have one goal a year. We would still have the same technological advancements we had in the seventeen hundreds.

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  12. I personally do not make New Year's resolutions because I feel as though they are just setting most people up for failure. Though this is not always the case, I feel as though people set too high of goals for themselves that they truly can't accomplish. I do think New Year's resolutions are beneficial, however. I even find it beneficial to reflect on the past year and see what things I have accomplished and what other things I have maybe fell short of. I am not fond of coming to the end of a year and realizing I have only let myself down. I try to be a very optimistic person, so I choose to avoid doing things that I know I will only feel incapable of finishing. As I stated earlier, people make unreasonable goals to fulfill throughout the year. So instead of making these unthinkable ambitions, I find it favorable to set smaller objectives in order to overcome the challenge that is being faced. This way, you are only taking baby steps to the end and are sure to succeed!

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  13. When it comes to New Year's Resolutions, I think it is important to think about ways to better organize and improve your lifestyle or mindset. Personally, I find myself quick to forget these attempts to improve. But if one truly wishes to change their life through resolutions, more drastic action should be taken, such as writing goals down, or creating a plan to achieve these goals. But when it comes to New Year's Resolutions themselves, I think the idea of waiting a whole year to create goals and adapt your mindset is a little unreasonable. I think self-betterment is something that should be constantly monitored, and not postponed until the the new year.

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  14. The deal with New Year's Resolutions is that people get so caught up in what they are already involved in that they forget anything they ever even mentioned at New Years. I do not make New Year's Resolutions considering the fact that I forget them anyway as well. If I want to change something, it is not going to be just because it is a New Year. Honestly when it comes to making New Year's Resolutions, many people do not see anything seriously wrong with their life anyway, so why would they change it? When you find something wrong, you can take initiative at it when it becomes a significant aspect of your life. I do not think that making a resolution is beneficial to the majority of people’s character, as it can show a side of you that does not stick to their goals. However, if you do stick to your goal and finish through strong, then you can demonstrate the determined personality that you could potentially have.

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  15. I actually do not make actual “New Year’s Resolutions” per say, I make small short term goals. Why I do little goal instead of a devotion for an entire year is because, just like Troy said, they are thing to be made and then completely forgotten in about a week because you get bored with it. For example, I have tried to push myself in the past to do something such as going for a run after school or something as ridiculous as hitting the gym for at least an hour and a half every single day. And it is to no one’s surprise that I was able to follow through with those resolutions. However, when I have tried to set goals like go running twice a week with a friend or using the exercise equipment in my basement three times a week, I was able to find much more success. To me, these resolutions are a way for people to convince themselves that they need/want to change and provide a plan to do so. But if you need the beginning of another year to notice your own faults, then you probably don’t have the interest or the resolve to commit to changing for an entire year.

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  16. Personally, I do not make New Year's resolutions because I usually get too distracted in the long run to focus on them. I live my life in the moment usually and have never really made a habit out of New Year's resolutions. They are goals that a person sets for themselves for the New Year. Whether it be get a boyfriend, lose some weight, or stop eating junk food, these goals are usually beneficial to ourselves or focused around improving ourselves. I do think resolutions are beneficial practices that make an individual look at the negative and realize what they need to change and change it. It happens in many forms in society, especially within the Hollywood society which is so focused around perfection and improving oneself in order to reach that standard. These resolutions are extremely beneficial on a smaller scale though.

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  17. I rarely bother making New Year's resolutions, and if I do, it is usually something I could get done quickly that I had just put off for a long time, e.g. replacing a bike tire. In most people's minds, however, a new year's resolution is a habit people want to develop or give up, especially in the subject of health. However, it is a fact proven annually by millions of people that trying to will yourself into sticking to a new year's resolution simply does not work. The reason for this is that people are not willing to put in the time and effort it takes to actually develop a habit. As the old saying goes, where there's a will there's a way. But if you do not follow that way, what you will is never going to happen. Your intentions to lose weight or eat more healthful foods is no good unless you exercise and refrain from heading to Burger King for dinner every night. In fact, good intentions alone can never make any real change. They must be accompanied by the decisions that will make those intentions a reality, and this is where so many people fall short. They know they SHOULD go to the gym, but they would rather sit and watch TV. They know they SHOULD have a salad, but they would rather have a banana split. People today are unwilling to say no to themselves, not because they can't, but because they don't feel like it. I love the title of the book "If self-help books were enough, we would all be skinny rich and happy."

    The problem with self-help is the source of your help. You are the one that got you into this whole mess, so why would you trust you to get you out? When you hear yourself, you are so persuasive. You say, "Well it's only one day I don't use the treadmill. I'm tired anyway, and I'm sure I got plenty of exercise walking around today already." Just listen to you. You sound so poor and helpless. Maybe you shouldn't be so hard on yourself, give your poor tired self a break. Then you say, "You deserve it. You've been doing so well, I shouldn't be so hard on you. Let's just be nice to each other and we'll be fine." And you agree wholeheartedly.

    This mindset is exactly why new years resolutions end in miserable failure. People refuse to relinquish their carnal desires or even delay them so they can be happier in the end.

    And one last thought: why do people wait until new years day? Is there some magical force that suddenly breaks all their bad habits and suddenly be exactly the way they wish they were? If there is, it sure hasn't made any difference yet.

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  18. I do participate in making New Years resolutions. I believe this is acknowledging what mistakes have been made and making a plan to improve. I believe that New Years resolutions are a great way to improve upon yourself. I see some of those people who are responding saying that people fail because they set too high of standards for themselves. While people may not always succeed in achieving their resolutions, I think people still should “shoot for the moon and if you miss you will still be among the stars.” I believe that if you set goals and fail at least you are making more progress than you would have without making the goals all together. The resolutions turn people's thoughts to what can and should be changed. This normally results in self improvement.

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  19. I like to make New Year's resolutions because it gives me a long term goarl to accomplish. I usually promise to have a healthier lifestyle meaning that I would eat healthier and/or workout more. I think it's very beneficial if people make a resolution. When someone does make one they are acknowledging their faults and want to fix it. It really works if the person actually works hard at it instead of forgetting about it or giving up. In the end the person will feel a lot better about themselves.

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  20. I do make New Year's resolutions. By making them, I feel like I help myself achieve higher goals that I would not otherwise achieve. Usually, my goals have to do with being a better person physically, mentally, and spiritually. New Year's resolutions are a very beneficial way to improve upon yourself. By having that attainable goal, you push yourself hard so that you will be able to accomplish it. Even if it is not accomplished by the end of the year, you know that you pushed yourself hard enough and that you tried as hard as you could. No matter what, you will end up farther then you were at the beginning of the year. When it comes to resolutions, they are always a great way to improve yourself in what ever you want, as long as you put your mind to it.

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  21. Every New Years, I think of about a million and one things I can improve. My physical appearance, my attitude, my personality, habits I hope to get rid of, and things that I hope to make habits. And around this same time, every news show and every newspaper article has tips to help you keep your resolutions, resolutions you should adopt, and so forth.
    It seems to me that these resolutions get a bad rep, when I think of stereotypes, I think of women in their 40's who want to shed a few lb.'s, I think of resolutions as a new outlook on life that lasts for about 2 weeks, if that. However, resolutions can be good, it's just that the stories of the positive ones are heard rarely as often. In reality unless the person chooses to share that their recent improvement was prompted by a new years resolution. How many people make life-impacting changes every year, and we don’t even know it?
    The other aspect of this is how negative it can make people feel about themselves? As I said earlier, every year I think of a million and one things I can improve. Thinking like this can easily cause I person to dwell on their shortcomings, physically and internally. The contradicting aspect of this is that it allows the people to improve themself.

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  22. I make multiple New Years Resolutions every year. A way I like to run my life when I'm trying to succeed something is by giving myself a dream goal, a realistic goal, and a bare minimum goal. For example, one year, my New Years resolution was to get better at horseback riding. My dream goal was to go win in a show, my realistic goal was to jump a jump over 3 feet high, and my bare minimum goal was to be able to jump a small course. Because I set these goals for myself, I actually ended up accomplishing all three, in order from bare minimum to dream goal that year! That backs up my thought that New Years Resolutions are a beneficial way to improve yourself. I think setting goals and making resolutions is the easiest way to get better at something. Whether it's something simple like improving at a sport, or it's something large and complex, like mending a relationship or living a healthier life, I think by giving yourself something to work for, in the form of a goal or New Years Resolution, with a prize in mind (I mean really, who would want to work for something if you get no reward??), you can accomplish anything!

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  23. I do not make New Years resolutions because to me they are empty. I don't see why a holiday is needed to try to improve yourself. Almost having to set a goal on a set date means that it will not be a good goal and one that you care about. I think that a resolution can be a good thing but it needs to be something that you can define and have sub-goals to reach. For me that doesn't happen on New Years very often so I don't make a resolution very often. I have also not been raised in a family that really has a tradition of resoulutions so I don't feel any pressure to make one. Pretty much a resolution could be good for someone but they aren't something that I put much stock in.

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  24. I do not necessarily make New Years resolutions, but rather flexible moderate changes I could apply to my life or lifestyle. Examples of these pliable goals for myself would include verbal as well as mental changes by attempting not to argue or dispute with my parents or brothers or friends. Another example would be to try to eat more healthy. Displayed in these examples is a lightness that does not say that a person is dissatisfied with themselves but rather they are suggestions at which are able to improve a person to their personal advantage. As long as the improvement is not drastic and dangerous and pleases the one altering their mind set or habits for personal benefit, I believe then that certain resolutions are acceptable as long as they are not taken to the hindering extreme.

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