原文來(lái)源：可可英語(yǔ)晨讀
單詞：百度翻譯
整理：啾啾
聲明：標(biāo)記了個(gè)人單詞，僅作學(xué)習(xí)存檔所用，如需瀏覽原文，請(qǐng)移步原公眾號(hào)，侵權(quán)刪。

Are New Year's resolutions powerful or pointless?

新年立flag真的有用還是毫無(wú)意義？

Almost every year of my adult life, I’ve started the New Year with a set of resolutions that I’ve been determined to keep. The results, predictably, have been variable.

幾乎在我成年后的每一年，我都會(huì)帶著一系列flag開(kāi)始新的一年，并且決心要把它們堅(jiān)持下去。不出所料，結(jié)果充滿變數(shù)。

In 2021, I mostly kept to my fitness goal of doing 20-minute workout each day, but I failed miserably at my aim of quitting social media.

2021年，我基本上達(dá)成了每天鍛煉20分鐘的健身目標(biāo)，但在戒掉社交媒體這一目標(biāo)上慘敗。

According to my weekly screen-time reports, I still spend between two and three hours each day on my phone, much of that time doomscrolling.

根據(jù)我的每周屏幕使用時(shí)間報(bào)告，我每天仍會(huì)花兩到三個(gè)小時(shí)在手機(jī)上，其中大部分時(shí)間都是在看些負(fù)面新聞。

I am far from alone in my determination to start each new year with a plan for self-improvement.

一到年初就立flag的人遠(yuǎn)不止我一個(gè)。

At least a quarter of people typically make at least one New Year’s resolution, and a large portion of those good intentions end in disappointment.

通常，至少有四分之一的人會(huì)立至少一個(gè)flag，而這些美好的愿望中有很大一部分將以失望告終。

For those who don’t follow this tradition, the very act of creating a New Year’s resolution can seem illogical.

對(duì)于那些不遵循這一慣例的人來(lái)說(shuō)，新年立flag的行為似乎是不合邏輯的。

Rationally speaking, 1 January should be no better than any other day to make a life change – so why put the needless pressure on ourselves to ‘upgrade’ our lives at the opening of a new calendar?

理性來(lái)講，1月1日并不比其他任何日子更適合改變生活——那么為什么要在新一年開(kāi)始時(shí)給自己施加不必要的壓力來(lái)“升級(jí)”我們的生活呢？

延伸閱讀

Recent psychological research, however, suggests that there are many good reasons to begin a new regime on the first day of a new year.

然而，最近的心理學(xué)研究表明，在新年的第一天開(kāi)始執(zhí)行新計(jì)劃的理由是十分充分的。

And by understanding and capitalising on those mechanisms, we can all increase our chances of sticking to our new goals for 2022.

通過(guò)理解和利用這些心理機(jī)制，我們都可以增加達(dá)成2022年新目標(biāo)的可能性。

It’s hard to pinpoint exactly when our tradition of making New Year’s Resolutions was first established.

很難準(zhǔn)確地說(shuō)，我們新年立flag的傳統(tǒng)是從什么時(shí)候開(kāi)始的。

Anna Katharina Schaffner, a cultural historian and author of The Art of Self-Improvement, notes literary references to self-improvement go back centuries, to Chinese antiquity and the Roman Stoics, for example.

文化歷史學(xué)家、《自我提升的藝術(shù)》一書(shū)的作者安娜·卡塔琳娜·沙夫納指出，有關(guān)自我提升的文學(xué)文獻(xiàn)可以追溯到幾個(gè)世紀(jì)以前，比如中國(guó)古代和羅馬的斯多葛學(xué)派。

The practice of pegging goals to a particular calendar date was already well-established by the 1860s, as seen in one of Mark Twain’s letters.

將目標(biāo)和特定日期聯(lián)系在一起的做法在19世紀(jì)60年代就已經(jīng)成為習(xí)慣了，就像馬克·吐溫在一封信中所寫(xiě)的那樣。