Resolve Resolutions

(Photo from Shutterstock) RESOLVING RESOLUTIONS

New Year’s comes chock full of exciting events. Hosting your own party or going to someone else’s. Playing games or watching a movie with family and friends. Watching the ball drop in Times Square or lining up a famous movie scene with the countdown. All fantastic celebrations of an approaching new year, but there is one dreaded tradition that lurks in the back of everyone’s minds: resolutions.

So what makes a resolution so hard? They are composed of multiple parts: a problem, a goal and a result (being success or failure). The issues that people have with resolutions arise between the second and third steps, and the main reason for those issues is motivation. The motivation to follow through with a resolution is short-lived, so someone may start excited to get to work but they will soon grow tired of it. Now what should you do to make your resolution as effective as possible? The first step is to evaluate your goal. With a goal, like wanting to put 20 percent of your paycheck into a savings account, you’ll find that you may need to break it to pay for emergency costs. The first priority with making the goal should be to make it possible to achieve without breaking, or else you will lose motivation every time it does. After making an attainable goal, short motivation is the limiting factor. Trying to wake up early or get off work and go straight to the gym is tough to do, so it’s necessary to find the proper motivation that will last a long time. Doing it with a friend or significant other is a great way to get the job done but also motivate each other.

The follow-through is the final component to the success of a resolution and it has a simple solution: set milestones to keep track of progress. It’s easy to lose track of a long-term goal, so it’s important to give it short term checkpoints for motivation and patience’s sake. Giving yourself rewards once you reach them also pushes you to keep going. If your resolution is to lose 50 pounds, set markers at every 10 and take the day to relax when you’ve reached them. Keep in mind not to set a reward that will break your goal or you’ll trap yourself in a cycle of meeting and losing your resolution. With something nearby to look forward to, a resolution looks less like a year-long struggle and more like a checkbox on a to-do list. by Andrew Reese officialandrewreese@gmail.com Why New Year’s resolutions are failing and how to fix them

What is your opinion on New Year’s resolutions?

“I think they’re good to get people motivated, but after the first couple of months, they don’t follow through.”

“I think they are and aren’t effective. Sometimes they follow through. Sometimes they don’t.” George Hohensee, 9

“I think New Year’s resolutions are kind of dumb because people just say, ‘I’ll do it tomorrow,’ but they never do.” Emma Quinn, 12

STAY HOME DURING THE SNOW

Every student’s dream has come true: school’s been called off due to snow. Now how does one spend the day off? When there is a snow day, it is because the school district has deemed the roads too dangerous for people to get to school. Regardless, some people decide to travel around during a snow day. Traveling on slick roads should be avoided if it is possible.

Driving on the ice or snow is much more dangerous than normal driving. The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) estimates that there are almost six million vehicle crashes every year, with 21 percent of them attributed to inclement weather. One thing reduced by slick roads is traction, which is the grip of a car’s tire on the road. When traction is reduced, the control a person has on the vehicle is also reduced. With less control of the vehicle, accidents are much more likely to happen.

Slippery roads also cause stopping distance to increase dramatically. The DOT estimates the stopping distance of a car going 30 miles per hour to be 75 feet in normal conditions. In icy conditions, it’s increased to nearly 600 feet. This happens because the wheels can’t get enough traction on the road to stop effectively. This will cause cars to skid or slide on the roads, causing more accidents.

It is much better to stay home when road conditions are bad to avoid the increased risk of an accident. However, there are ways to prevent an accident if you do have to drive in icy conditions. Slowing down will reduce the likelihood of skidding on the road. To avoid crashing into the car ahead of you, keep much more space in between your car and the car in front of you. To help increase traction on the road, snow chains for the tires can be bought. Lastly, carry a kit that includes things like an ice scraper, water, winter clothes and more. (Brief by Justin Christensen) MORE INFO Check out some winter driving tips from AAA here: bit.ly/NSwinterdriving