Do you make New Year’s resolutions? Why (or why not)?

“I do not make New Year’s resolutions because I (and everyone else on Earth) never end up keeping them for the whole year.”

“I do, because it gives me hope and motivates me to become a better version of myself.”

“I don’t make them because I feel like the only way I grow is by making mistakes so I can learn how to handle situations. If I achieve something I’m happy.”

“New Year’s resolutions are my life saver. It makes me consider what I wanted last year and why I didn’t get it. It really helps me centre myself.”

The practice of making New Year’s resolutions can be traced back 4000 years to the Babylonians; they celebrated a festival called Akitu around March and used this as a time to make promises to their gods. Some historians also argue that the tradition originated in Rome. The month of January was named after the god Janus, who was associated with new beginnings because of his two faces- one looking to the past and one to the future.

But how successful are New Year’s resolutions today? According to YouGov, 63% of Britons make resolutions, but only 10% manage to keep them. While the end of a year seems like the perfect time to reflect and set new targets for ourselves, we seem to be setting up to fail, and here are a few reasons why:

New Year’s resolutions are often too ambitious, which makes them unrealistic to keep. They often involve making big lifestyle changes in the guise of a simple resolution, when in fact a person who is trying to quit smoking, for example, is trying to completely stop a bad habit that has become routine (quitting smoking is actually the hardest New Year’s resolution to keep). Resolutions can often make us fall victim to ‘false hope syndrome’, which makes us miscalculate how quick or how easy it can be to change our habits and behaviours.

How to change this: “I don’t believe in the idea of new year, new me. I’m always making short term goals in my head, and when I achieve them I make new ones.” Take the common resolution of eating more healthily. It wouldn’t be realistic to say that by January 2nd a person who made this resolution will have given up chocolate; instead, try splitting the long-term target into smaller chunks. Not only will it make the overall goal more manageable, but you’ll be meeting your short-term goals more frequently, and this will feel far more rewarding.

There’s something about the closing of a year that makes us reflect on it, and the concept of resolutions can cause people to focus on aspects of themselves that need to be changed. While the New Year is a natural time for reflection, it shouldn’t be the only time for reflection!

How to change this: “You’re the same person you were on the last day of last year as on the first day of the New Year. As a person you want to make changes to yourself often when you face obstacles, and so as I face them I set myself targets along the year. It’s not like you face it all on New Year’s Eve.” If you feel that you need to change, take small steps to make that change. Why put off your next resolution ‘til January 1st when you could start it as soon as possible?

Since the New Year is often cause to look back on the last one, consider how much has happened in the past 12 months. While New Year’s resolutions promote self-change, there is also a lot that happens in our lives which is out of our control.

How to change this: “I like challenging myself. If it doesn’t work it doesn’t, but I’ll try.” Sometimes you can’t change what’s going on around you! Even though it can get difficult, you have to accept that things change and your priorities may too. While you might end the next year valuing something other than your initial resolution, you will have changed, and probably for the better.

New Year’s resolutions can be a great thing. For some people, it can motivate them to meet a target before next year’s deadline, and can encourage positive changes in behaviours and habits. If we make simpler, more realistic goals they will also be far easier to achieve. Sometimes we’ll need to accept that resolutions fail, but it’s inevitable that whatever choice you make, things will have changed by next year.

Zaynab Ahmed, Woodford County High School