New Year’s resolutions: Do they stick?

In January, The Concordian told the story of Colten Kohler, Luke Cutler and Casey Johnson: three roommates who set some pretty lofty New Year’s resolutions. Kohler, a business management and organizational communication major, resolved to drink only one can of soda pop per week. Cutler, an exercise science major, resolved to complete the Navy Seals workout in order to prepare for a half marathon in May. And Johnson, an economics and business management major, took a more abstract route and decided to “have high expectations and not waste opportunities.”

Now that it’s April, The Concordian checks back in to see how they’re doing.

“So far it’s going well,” Johnson said. “My resolution has really become a part of my decision making.”

Johnson said that since he made the resolution, he’s done things he normally wouldn’t have done. For instance, he went on a road trip to Chicago over spring break, took part in a flash mob on campus for Dance Marathon, rock climbed at the YMCA and is currently taking music lessons.

“Truly, I don’t know if I would have done these things before,” he said. “It’s great because I can see progress everyday.”

Johnson’s resolution had a lot to do with the fact that he’s graduating in May. He’s been focusing especially on going to greater lengths to spend time with friends and hanging out with people he might not see in a month, he said.

He’s also tried to keep his mind open while searching for a job. While he was a little bit disappointed that a hopeful job at ESPN didn’t work out, he did get job with Cargill in finance as an accountant.

“I don’t know if it’ll be the right fit for me, but I’m excited to find out,” he said.

Johnson said he will still keep his eyes open for more opportunities as the summer goes on. He’d still like to take guitar lessons and find some different volunteer opportunities.

While he doesn’t know if he’s going to continue making such abstract New Year’s resolutions in the future, he’s definitely glad with how this one turned out.

“This is the most successful I can remember a resolution being,” Johnson said.

Cutler and Kohler haven’t had quite the same amount of success as their roommate; however, they aren’t too discouraged.

“Mine was going awesome until about spring break,” Kohler said. “I went to Florida with my family and that didn’t help at all. It was a lack of a support system. At least these guys keep me accountable.”

Kohler said that up until then, he had only had three cans of soda pop. He also had been successful at not increasing his coffee intake—something he’d been worried about happening. But since break, things haven’t been going as well.

“It was definitely a challenge at first,” Kohler said. “But it wasn’t a lifestyle change I was going for. As situations change, your goals change, and so while it could have been a short-term goal that could have led to long-term change, it wasn’t.”

Kohler realized that while his resolution may not have been completely effective, it taught him about the effort that goes into making lifestyle changes.

“If I want to make a future lifestyle change, I know how much work goes into it now,” he said.

Cutler’s Navy Seal workout resolution also struggled during spring break.

“Spring break was a bad time for me,” Cutler said. “It got me out of a routine, and the combo of that and finishing the first set of the program wasn’t helpful.”

While he has yet to start the second set of the program, Cutler said he’s content with simply focusing on staying in shape in order to keep preparing for the half marathon.

“I like to stay physically active. Even if it’s not the program that I set on originally to do, it’s fine as long as I stay active,” he said.

Once he finishes the half marathon in May, Cutler said that he’d love to set goals for doing more races as the year goes on.

Although Cutler and Kohler’s more traditional resolutions did not turn out as well as Johnson’s more abstract resolution, they said that they aren’t motivated to try an abstract one next year.

“I feel like I need a measurable something to motivate me,” Cutler said.

“Yeah, the nature of what we wanted was different,” Kohler said. “There was either failure or success for all of our goals, but the success measurement was different between ours and Casey’s.”