After New Year’s Eve, people begin their New Year’s Resolution, but according to Proactive Chance, over 50 percent of people quit by June.

It is frustrating for me to see so many people in the gym for the first two weeks of January, my friends on Facebook saying they are going to be a kinder person or people in my classes saying they are going to put in more of an effort in school.

Within a few weeks, the gym seems to have lost 20 members, my Facebook friends back to posting rude and judgmental statuses  and I noticed three people who have already skipped classes.

EWU senior Marissa Freeman said she has been making New Year’s Resolutions since she was 16 years old, but only recently has she started taking them seriously. Freeman said she has probably quit most of the resolutions she has made before the end of January.

A resolution should be chosen considering the variables or time, ability and difficulty.

EWU sophomore Samuel Lampe said his resolution this year is to not watch any Netflix during winter quarter. He said he hopes his studies will keep him busy enough to accomplish this resolution because most of the time he doesn’t.

“I am too lazy to actually go through with it,” said Lampe.

According to Statistic Brain, only 8 percent of people who make a New Year’s Resolution are successful in achieving it.

When considering a resolution to continue throughout the entire year, one should often consider his or her own limitations. Simply making a resolution to get better grades, leaves a lot to chance. It is hard to determine what the rest of the year is going to look like and what your workload is going to be.

Another difficult resolution to keep is one that is too broad. If a resolution is to lose weight, then it has technically been accomplished as soon as one pound has been lost. However, I am willing to bet that most people who make that resolution would like to lose more than one pound.

Lastly, those who make extremely difficult resolutions drive me crazy because most of the time they don’t accomplish them. Resolutions such as scoring 100 percent on all exams are very hard to achieve.

EWU junior Timothy Coleston said having a schedule and having his friends join him in his goal help him stay on track. He said if he skips a day, his friends are quick to remind him to keep going.

“Use peer pressure to your advantage,” said Coleston.

I think it is really beneficial to come up with a plan to achieve a resolution or break the resolutions up into stepping stones. For those who want to get better grades, perhaps it would be easier to define “better.” Will you be shooting for one letter grade higher, or maybe a GPA that is two points higher?

The people who make difficult resolutions such as scoring 100 percent on all their exams, perhaps would have better success if they made a plan. For example, each week they will spend a certain amount of hours studying for their classes and upcoming exams.

All in all, I think everyone needs to make a plan to achieve their resolutions, especially when the resolution it to lose weight. I think a lot of people who quit their resolution to lose weight are discouraged because they don’t have a plan.

Most people just want to lose weight, but rarely do they think about how much weight they want to lose. After determining their goal weight, they need to determine the amount of weight they need to lose per week in order to meet that goal.

Coleston believes that when you start your resolution is not important.

“I think it’s something that you should be constantly working on, not just something at New Years,” said Coleston.

My suggestion is that people put more thought into their resolutions before making them. Try to make a specific resolution with a specific plan and have someone keep you accountable so you are more motivated to stay on track. And keep this in mind: just because one week or month was bad does not mean you have to wait until next year to try again.