Richard Wiseman, a psychologist in England, asked about 3,000 people whether they kept their resolution or not. About 88 percent of them replied that they did not. That figure is more than I expected! Most of them wanted to lose weight, not to drink much or to stop smoking. I also decided to control my love for fast food but, this love is larger and larger sadly. Including me, a large number of people could not keep their resolution. Why not? There is two answers to this question. One is that people cannot focus on doing what they need to do and another is that people do what they have to avoid; eating delicious food, smoking and so on. What should we do to resist this kind of temptation? According to one report, people must foster the capacity to concentrate on must-do things and they should divert their attention away from temptation when they are about to do as they want.
When 2011 year has come, I made a plan for this year. I planned to receive good grades in university, improve my English skill and so on. Most of things are for my SPEC( In Korea, it means would-be workers are advantages to have a lot of accomplish to show and it is called SPEC.) Looking back, I focused too much on external things such as “what” I do rather than “how” and “why” I should do them. When I cannot or do not keep my decision, I really disappointed myself and felt this is wrong. So, I realized the most important thing is how I can change myself from being lazy and weak, to being punctual and responsible. Surely, I think showing person’s ability to do all things well with SPEC is important. However, it is more precious to you how you do work and learn lessons from experience. Although my resolutions from 2011 remain unaccomplished, I will try to keep my promises and set up a plan for 2012 thinking about the lessons from this year.
In this 113th magazine, there is the first place of Essay Contest held by The UOS Times. Our subject is two; “Turning Point” and “First Love.” Evaluating all essays, our reporters including me learned a lot of lessons from the applicants. The first place of Essay Contest is about “Turning Point” so by reading it, I hope you learn something and it will be reference when you make resolution for 2012. Good luck to you!
Park Hye-ryeong Editor-in-Chief
hrpark92@uos.ac.kr