New Year's Resolutions

Recently in class I was talking with some students about New Year’s Resolutions. Personally, I’ve never been a fan of making them myself. I prefer to make goals. But what exactly is different between these two things?

A resolution
“a firm decision to do or not to do something.”

A goal
“an aim or desired result.”

For me I don’t need a new year to make a resolution. If there is something I want to change about myself, then I hope to do it at that time. But I find having a goal that I’d like to achieve by the end of the year motivating. Since it’s a goal, it’s something I hope to achieve. Not something I’ve decided to do.

The pandemic has made it very difficult for me to even make goals. Some of the goals I had last year… I was not able to achieve. I can only hope that 2022 will be better.