New Year's Resolutions

The noun "resolution" comes from the verb "to resolve," and both mean to make a serious decision about something. "Resolution" is probably most commonly used in spoken English when referring to a New Year's resolution.

So, I also wanted to talk for a second about New Year's resolutions.

Caption 23, Abiventures: Happy New Year

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Wikipedia defines a New Year's resolution as when "a person resolves to continue good practices, change an undesired trait or behavior, accomplish a personal goal, or otherwise improve their behavior at the beginning of a calendar year." This is a tradition usually found in the Western World, but common to many cultures across the globe.

The most common way to express something you are going to do in the future is to use "going to" or "will":

I am going to travel more.

Caption 12, Sigrid explains: The Future

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I can say, "I will lose four pounds this year."

Caption 29, Sigrid explains: The Future

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One problem with New Year's resolutions is that almost everybody promises to change their behavior in some way, but statistically almost nobody does.

I don't really make any New Year's resolutions anymore because I learned early on that when I did, I never really followed through with the resolution.

Captions 2-4, Ashley Tisdale: Happy New Year!

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One reason people don't succeed with their resolutions is that they make unreasonable goals for themselves:

Mine is to pilot a commercial jet. -That's a good one too, Pheebs. Now all you have to do is find a plane load of people whose resolution is to plummet to their deaths.

Captions 13-16, New Year's Resolutions: Friends

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Unless Phoebe is already attending flight school and is far enough along that she can reasonably expect to be working this year, her goal is unrealistic.

All right, my New Year's resolution is to learn how to play guitar.

Caption 29, New Year's Resolutions Friends

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Here Joey, also a fictitious character in the TV series Friends, has a more realistic goal. Notice that as somebody who doesn't know how to play guitar yet, Joey didn't say his resolution is to headline as a guitarist in a world-famous band playing Madison Square Garden—Joey just wants to start learning to play guitar. This just requires buying a guitar, finding a guitar teacher, and taking the time to practice and attend lessons: realistic!
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

Further Learning
Did you make any New Year's resolutions this year? Have you started following through on them yet? If the resolutions you made are not realistic, maybe you can try to make a new resolution that you think you'll be able to keep! Watch some of the videos above on Yabla English and listen to the way people talk about their own New Year's resolutions.