Are You Making New Year’s Resolutions?
Sam: So are you making any New Year’s resolutions?
Dina: No. I don’t like to make resolutions. I usually don’t follow through with them.
Sam: OK. Well, um, how do you achieve your goals?
Dina: I like to do a year-end sort of reevaluation, and make goals for the new year.
Dina: But I think those are different than resolutions. I kind of feel like resolutions are wishes on stubs of paper that you just like throw into the wind and don’t do anything about.
Dina: Whereas goals are like something you promise to yourself and you try to take action steps to do. I dunno.
Sam: Yeah. Well, I like to make resolutions, but um, I don’t limit them just to New Year’s. I- every time I start something new, I- I- I- I think of some goals that I wanna do, and, uh, try to put ’em into practice.
Sam: So… that’s how I do it. It doesn’t always work out, but that’s what I always do.
Vocabulary:
New Year’s resolutions – decisions or promises made on New Year’s Day to improve your life or stop a bad habit in the coming year, “My New Year’s resolutions always involve eating more vegetables and exercising more often.”
follow through with – to complete an action or promise that you have started or agreed to do, “If you make a commitment to help your friend move, you need to follow through with it.”
year-end sort of reevaluation – a careful review or assessment made at the very end of a year to look back at your progress and habits, “Our company does a year-end sort of reevaluation to see which products sold the best.”
take action steps – to perform specific, practical tasks in order to achieve a goal or solve a problem, “To save money for a vacation, you need to take action steps like cooking at home instead of ordering takeout.”
limit them just to – to restrict or confine choices, activities, or ideas to a specific boundary or timeframe, “You don’t have to limit your hobbies just to the weekends; you can enjoy them in the evenings too.”
put ’em into practice – (put them into practice) to start using or doing something regularly in real life, rather than just thinking or talking about it, “After reading a book about time management, he immediately tried to put those tips into practice.”
work out – to happen, develop, or end in a successful, satisfactory, or expected way, “We were worried about the outdoor wedding, but everything managed to work out perfectly despite the clouds.”