I resolve to be more intentional

Harry Scherer
Class of 2022

(1/2019) I wonder what the general success rate of New Year’s resolutions is. It must be less than 10%. While admittedly anecdotal and unscientific, this arbitrarily surmised statistic offers an invitation to inquire the purpose of these annual personal promises.

I tell myself that the purpose of these resolutions is self-betterment. But to what end? Well, self-betterment. That does not get me very far. Speaking from the wide breadth of life experience that any 18-year-old has had, it seems that resolutions or self-made promises endure when they are rooted in a deep and fulfilling purpose. Unfortunately, it is difficult to find that fulfilling purpose in a resolution that is dependent on a date. An unintended consequence of this holiday-centric promise is that it ages the commitment and preserves it in the time that it was made. For example, it would be difficult to imagine someone going to the gym on six out of seven days of the week because it was his or her New Year’s resolution to do so.

So, it seems that a necessary attitude when drafting possible New Year’s resolutions is moderation. Without a desire to change and improve in the context of moderation, failing to stay consistent with extreme goals will lead to ultimate failure in the entire endeavor. Initially, when I considered whether to attempt to keep resolutions for 2019, I considered my success from previous years. I did not stay true to the resolution to complete 100 pushups every day. I did not start long-term school work on the day that it was assigned. Finally, with great dismay, I did not keep a resolution to always be working on a puzzle. For some reason, the puzzle phase did not last.

This year, I am intentionally making my resolutions more mission-based and broad. In 2019, I will be more intentional in my daily routine. I was always struck by a classroom poster than hung in my 5th grade science classroom. The sign reminded those who looked upon it to be careful with our thoughts, for they become our words, which become our actions, which become our habits, which become our character, which becomes our destiny. With this in mind, I hope to place a greater personal regulation on my thoughts, words and actions, for if the classroom poster was correct, those realities will become my destiny.

One arena in which I hope to improve for the next year is staying consistent and true to the widely disseminated advice to go to sleep and rise at the same time every day. While this may appear to be impossible for a college student, I will try my best to stay true to my resolution under the general mission of being intentional, even when it’s time to sleep. The scientific research is clear regarding the benefits of consistently sufficient sleep. The time that our long-term memories are stored away and when we take in all the information that we received during the day and regenerate to do it all over again on the subsequent day. A night of poor sleep can lead to irritability and generally restricts a day of expected productivity. Sleep, therefore, has a direct correlation to our destiny.

Another resolution that I hope to enact in the next calendar year is to always be reading a book that has not been assigned as coursework. Reading for pleasure is a practice that seems to be reserved for those with copious amounts of free time with which to spend hours reading without the apparent constraints of intellectual consideration or reading comprehension questions to be answered. However, it seems to be a therapeutic practice for college students. With the desire to grow my intellectual capacity outside the realm of graded assignments or the possibility of being tested, casual reading seems to be the surest and quickest manner for this growth to be achieved. This resolution is consistent with the attempt to be more intentional because the practice takes advantage of time that would otherwise be used to come across information on the internet or social media that is presented in an incoherent way. Instead, resolving to always have a book open will give me the opportunity to learn new information, understand thought leadership across disciplines and explore new parts of the world that I would never have had exposure to without the limitless opportunities that lie in the written word.

Finally, the most extreme resolution that I will attempt for 2019 is limiting time on social media. This will be difficult, because it is one way I communicate with friends from high school. However, it does take up a lot of the day if the app sits on my phone, ready to be opened, without a meaningful alternative to endlessly scrolling through Instagram. I hope that the short-term benefits will be noticeable. With more time to read the book that will always be open on my desk, spend more face-to-face time with friends, and less political frustrations emerging from the dark recesses of Instagram, I will have successfully completed my resolution to be more intentional. Today, very little of social media leads to personal development. While the seemingly pure and positive intentions of social media are evident, the deleterious effects of tearing people apart and emphasizing what divides us, instead of what unites us, has proven to have negative side effects on my generation. Spending endless hours on social media does not enhance my freedom, but rather limits and holds it hostage to sites that have proven to be addictive.

I know that I will learn a lot about myself, others and the world in the next calendar year. Just from my first semester, it is obvious that is a common expectation in college. With the desire to be more intentional in my thoughts, words, actions and habits, I pray that this New Year will build upon solid character and a rising destiny for myself and others. Happy New Year!

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