Every year, people from all over the world prepare themselves for the new year by setting goals or “New Year’s Resolutions.” New Year’s Resolutions are promises to do something different in the new year. Most common resolutions that people set for the New Year can range from health, finances, relationships, or self-improvement. Syria Chaney (12) said, “My New Year’s resolutions from last year were to stay focused in school, get accepted by my top schools and to end the year with all A’s.” For other people, circumstances, past events, future goals drive motivation to set a New Year’s resolution. The intrinsic motivation within people is stronger than extrinsic motivation. Extrinsic motivation includes outside factors like incentives or rewards. The external element when related to New Year’s Resolution is seen as a justification as to why people fail to live up to their promises. The lack of motivation within gives off an early assumption in the year that they can live up to their promises, but that is not proven as time goes by.
Sports documentaries on players getting into a league, recovering from injuries, minor and major setbacks, getting into the Hall of Fame for accomplishments have an overarching theme of player’s drive, self-motivation, determination and other qualities they needed to persevere. For example, CJ Ogbonna (12) was named “Region 2- AAAAAAA Offensive Player of the Year.” He stated, “As the New Year came in, I resolved to improve as a quarterback my senior year because football is a sport that I have loved played my whole life. As the year progressed, I became more determined to achieve this goal. After staying on top of my resolutions, I became senior captain of the football team.” This encouraged him to have more motivation because he wanted to be a good leader for his team and lead them to many victories this season. Even though many people are motivated to achieve the goals they set, the majority of people don’t fulfill these resolutions making them simply “broken promises.”
Broken promises aren’t things that happen out of no-where, there are reasons why people usually don’t achieve them. For example, Kyler Darge (12) states, “I always make New Year’s resolutions, but sometimes I forget about them, or I’m not that motivated to achieve them. That’s why every year, I usually have the same goals with an addition of a few.” When making goals, many people only speak it into existence, but that’s not the most effective way of achieving goals. However, one has to note that for some people, broken promises for one person is not broken to another. As stated earlier on, circumstances may lead to one not feeling anything when breaking their promises. However, this should not deny that broken promises done every year are exemplified with laziness, no desire and other qualities that should be improved. If they are developed, and there’s more motivation, future goals can be met, and happiness can be achieved.