NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS

WHAT ARE THEY? WHY ARE THEY ONLY FOR THE NEW YEAR? AND WHY DO THEY ALMOST ALWAYS FAIL?

“Failure is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently.” -Henry Ford

Resolution is a noun and stems from the verb ”to resolve.” A New Year’s resolution means topromise, with a firm determination, to do something good for oneself in the New Year nomatter what.

New Year’s resolutions could be in many different forms for different people. Some would like to get over a bed habit like smoking, drinking, drug or junk food addiction. Some would like to lose weight, to exercise and to eat healthy food. Some would like to do everything possible, to achieve a milestone in his/her carrier. This list of resolutions can go on and on.

A basic question that must be asked here is why should we make resolutions only for the New Year?

I believe the New Year is the best time from a psychological standpointto start something new. But there is also a cultural traditionbehind it. It’s said that Roman Emperor Julius Caesar started the tradition of making a New Year’s resolution to please and honor the mythical Roman God of Janus. It’s believed that Janus has had two faces- one face was looking back into the past, and the other face looking forward into the future. This tradition was then passed from generation to generation and became a cultural heritage.

A second question we must ask is why do New Year’s resolutions almost always fail?

Indeed, a study done on New Year’s resolutions has shown that only 9.2% of them are kept. The rest failed within the first two weeks of January. One of the most common causes of failure is because they are casually made, they are vague and/or contrast to reality.

We are creatures of habit. It’s not easy to make changes in our life, to break the comfort of our habits and our lifestyles. To make changes in life is not easy. It takes a long time, determination and hard work.

Many of our beliefs and behavior patterns develop and take shape in our early childhood. Our brain’s development and architecture continue, in a most rapid pace, right after birth and under the influences of events in our early childhood. Therefore we must know ourselves very well as to who we are, what are our values, our beliefs, our personality and our behavior patterns before we make a resolution to make ourselves better.  Our resolutions should not contradict the reality of life nor who we are.

Unrealistic resolution attempts are bound to fail. We afterwards tend to blame and belittle ourselves and lose our self-confidence. As I See It, we should remember that failures in life are necessary to learn a lesson from them and to do better the next time. As Henry Ford, the founding father of the Ford Motor Company said “failure is the opportunity to start again, more intelligently.”