“New year, new me.”  You have probably heard this term before, especially during this time of year, when commercials turn from presents and cards to exercise and Weight Watchers. This is all because of New Year’s resolutions. New Year’s resolutions are most commonly to quit smoking, to read more but the one that you hear the most is to “get in shape”.

Humans have been celebrating the new year on the Gregorian calendar for thousands of years, and people have been making resolutions to better themselves for longer. According to History.com, Ancient Babylonians were the first to do this in the form of making promises to their gods and repaying their debts, some 4,000 years ago.

Babylonians would mark the new year with a huge religious festival called Atiku that involved a different religious ritual for 11 days. In addition to celebrating the new year, this festival would also celebrate the victory of the Babylonian sky god Marduk over the evil sea goddess Tiamat.

Like us, Ancient Babylonians would also make resolutions to themselves for the new year, like paying their debts for example, though our resolutions seem to be rooted in something much deeper than wanting to return borrowed farm equipment.

Because the new year comes so close to other holidays like Christmas, negative feelings towards one’s body may be at an all-time high for the year, and you will be searching for a way to burn off your regret. According to a survey about holiday stress conducted by the American Psychological Association, 56 percent of participants reported eating to reduce stress and holiday depression during the holidays, versus 38 percent during the rest of the year.

Gyms notice this trend and use it to their advantage when trying to recruit new members. One of the most popular ways gyms try to sell their memberships is by promoting the ideal “summer body”– a concept that implies you should be dissatisfied with your current body and work as hard as you can on changing yourself before bikini season.

This isn’t just a common sales tactic for gyms– stores and big businesses often use people’s insecurities to help sell their products. Take the popular phrase “new year, new me” for example; even those four simple words imply that your current self is something that needs to be changed, and buying whatever the business is selling is the way to do it.

If you go to the gym, you will notice that the first two weeks of January are crowded with customers trying their hardest to burn off their thanksgiving turkey or christmas cookies.

However, most of these people sprinting towards their new year goal end up barely sprinting at all. This is the sad truth behind new year’s resolutions.

According to KXAN network, “Gold’s Gyms traffic jumps 40 percent between December and January. Then the number of memberships dips back down significantly in February.” People get the mindset that this is their year, and the time between early january and summer is long enough to possibly lose enough weight to look good in a bikini for summer.

Not everyone cares about achieving their “beach body” before winter is over, though. Some feel that New year’s resolutions are often based on the assumption that people are set on bettering themselves. “I think it puts pressure on you to improve even if you don’t want to” says Mor Erlich, 41 year old visual artist.

It’s not just gyms that benefit from people’s intents to better themselves, though. Hawke’s Bay Vapour Palmerston North vape shop manager Jessica Byron says that they had a growth of customers after the new year started due to people’s new year’s resolutions of giving up smoking.

“There is definitely a trend of people coming in and asking for help” she says. “It’s a good time for us.”

New year’s resolutions can be good motivation to better yourself if you feel like you want to, and your improvements don’t necessarily have to be based on self hate or shame. After all, you are 10 times more likely to achieve a goal you made at the start of the new year, according to Dr. Mike Evans.

“People are always looking for reasons to do things, because wanting to do something just because you feel like it is lame and sometimes cant be justified.” Says Vivian Lipson, a Sophomore at Nest+m. “New year’s resolutions are just a dumb excuse to change yourself,” explains Lipson.

“It’s good to make New Year’s resolutions, but you can make resolutions on literally any day of the year. Make a new week resolution. It doesn’t matter that the year is changing.”

We set unrealistic expectations for ourselves for the new year. The truth is, if you rarely ever exercise you won’t be able to instantly run a marathon. The expectation in our heads that is the classic movie montage with an inspirational song in the background is most likely unattainable.

Exercise is hard work and it always will be, these expectations are not just unfair but dangerous. Nobody can become an amazing athlete instantly; it takes hard work and dedication. However, these resolutions can be a positive thing and you should always strive to be as healthy as possible.

Sometimes the idea of a “better version” of yourself seems like a mountain that is impossible to climb. We asked students at the NYC iSchool what their mindset towards their new year resolutions was.

“If you’re gonna do it then do it, but are you gonna do it?” Speculates Jasmine Gebreyesus, a junior at the iSchool.  “You should not change yourself if you are perfectly healthy, but if you are unhealthy you should strive for heathiness” says Isadora Rayne, a freshman at the iSchool.

People seem to be very divided on this topic. People are mostly skeptical due to the fact that new  year’s resolutions don’t always work.

In fact, according to US News, about 80% of resolutions fail by the second week of February. The goal to better ourselves comes from the want to like ourselves more. Often our resolutions are relatively achievable, and failing results in lowered self esteem, making us want to change ourselves even more. This vicious cycle is one that can easily set people up for looking forward to more self hatred in the new year.

Time suggests that the high failure rate of new year’s resolutions may be tied to putting a time limit on your goal. “If you believe that you can only change on the New Year… you will have to wait a whole year before you get another shot.” writes Jessica Lamb-Shapiro.

Writer Stephanie Dolgoff likes to make new year’s “intentions” rather than resolutions, so there’s no pressure on you to complete your goal. “Resolutions are a setup for failure” she says.

New Years Intentions are “more of a plan or an aim,” for the year, explains Sonya Frazier, a licensed mental health counselor based in Tampa, Florida.

“A New Year’s resolution is not really a plan or anything that you can really put into practice, by definition,” notes Frazier. “That’s why people haven’t been successful.”

It looks like new years resolutions like these cause more harm than good. So many people have their hopes crushed because of them.

A common theme is that people have a hard time committing to goals, especially when things start to get difficult. Exercise always have and always will be hard and the positive effects come after all of the hard work.

A good way to commit to these resolutions is a plan or a calendar. For example, you can set a goal for yourself each day that gets increasingly harder so by the end, you are not just in better shape, but you are comfortable with your workout routine. This might not get you the results you want as fast as possible but it is the safest healthiest ways to do this.

If you jump right in to a challenging routine with zero experience it can hurt you . Carly Ryan, exercise physiologist at Exercise and Sports Science Australia, says it’s important to differentiate between “pain” and “discomfort” when working up a sweat.

You can seriously hurt yourself if you push your limits too hard. When you break a sweat it is important to keep pushing for the best results. if you ever feel like you are going to be sick or pass out, it is important to stop and get as much oxygen in your lungs as possible.

New year’s resolutions are not bad or good, it is what you make out of them that has those results. You should always push yourself to be not only as healthy, but as happy as possible. If exercise will make you more confident then of course you should do it, but you should not change yourself or put unrealistic standards in your head. You should try to be as in shape as possible, while still remaining safe and healthy. But if a new years resolution will better your quality of life, what is stopping you?

With hard work and dedication, all goals are possible.