Fulfilled, failed or forget about it: here’s what some Huntsvillians had to say about their New Year’s resolutions

Are you still resolved to complete your New Year’s resolutions? If you are, you are in the minority. About two-thirds of people who make resolutions have generally given up by now.

With the first month of the New Year over and the second quickly moving along, it seems all too easy to forget about the resolutions that we set for ourselves over a month ago. Maybe you had too much to drink when you decided on your (now absurd sounding) goal of playing the stock markets for a living, or possibly it was your friend’s ‘home gym’ that steered you away from any future fitness endeavors. Curious to discover what sort of events actually took place on New Year’s Eve and the following days afterwards, I took to the streets of Huntsville to question complete strangers in the freezing cold. You’re welcome.

There was a slew of people who tried devoting themselves to eating a more balanced and healthy diet. Some reported failures, while others gleefully told me about how well their new eggshell and bread crust diet was going (it wasn’t really that bad, I just hate the thought of food without some sort of gelatinous goodness). One lady’s story in particular happened to catch my attention, because of how dedicated she seemed.

“I thought it would be better if I just did meal prep every week instead of eating out,” she said. “One of my girlfriends even suggested that I try making smoothies in the mornings before work.” The amount of vegetables and other strange foods that she described being blended into this concoction was frightening to say the least, and not something I would be able to stomach in the slightest. The factor that impressed me the most was that she was still “committed to the crime”, as she put it.

A slightly more humorous resolution was made by a young woman who told me that her goal was to “get a promotion within two weeks of the beginning of January.” It just so happens that she actually did manage to get her promotion, which completely baffled me. Did this woman click on one of those ‘Huntsville mom makes over $100,000 a day — click here to find out how!’ ads and it actually worked? Did she impress her manager to such an extent that the manager just turned the position over to her? Nope. The secret was that her manager happened to be going on maternity leave within the timeframe that she chose. I don’t know if you would call that cheating on a resolution or not, but I guess the end goal was still accomplished.

And finally, we have the non-believers. Those who don’t bother with the task of preparing a resolution and seek to set goals without the need for a specific date to do so.

“Just get on with it,” said one man, “don’t think about it, just deal with it and keep moving. You can’t just wait around for the one day a year that might bring you closer to your goal.”

While the Huntsvillians had some very funny and unique answers, that response was, in my opinion, some the best advice I had heard all day. So, let’s be honest with ourselves: do we really a New Year to improve our lives?

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