……… for 73% of Australians!
For many (myself included), the start of a new year marks an opportunity to reflect on the year coming to a close and think about where you would like to be in the future.
New Year’s resolutions signify a personal commitment to the pursuit of positive change. They can be defined as:
a promise that you make to yourself to start doing something good or stop doing something bad on the first day of the year
Cambridge Dictionary1
Almost every year of my adult life has started with a New Year’s resolution that I have been determined to keep, usually health-related. I undoubtedly fail, like most others.
Yet we continue to make resolutions because we feel optimistic about the future. It is expected that 73% of Australians (equivalent to 14.8 million people) will make a New Year resolution for 20242.
Women are more likely to make resolutions, with the most common ones being:
- to eat more healthily (around 1 in 3),
- improve fitness and
- lose weight
Younger generations are more likely to make New Year’s resolutions, with 92% of Gen Z and 83% of millennials likely to set goals, compared with just 52% of baby boomers. Maybe, as we age we resign ourselves to the fact that we will most likely not succeed, so we become less enthusiastic about the pursuit of positive change.
It is thought that only around 8% of us fulfill our New Year’s resolutions3, meaning that 92% of us fail.
So why do we continue to make resolutions and how can we ensure we stick to them?
Evolution of the Resolution
The tradition of ushering in the new year and embracing new beginnings dates back to ancient times, with one of the earliest recorded celebrations attributed to the Babylonians in the middle of the third millennium BC4. Their New Year celebration, known as Akitu, took place in March or April, commencing with the appearance of the new moon after the spring equinox.
During the elaborate 12-day festival, the Babylonians engaged in a series of rituals and ceremonies, one being the stripping down of the king’s regalia by the high priest and slapping him in the face. This reminded the king to remain humble and inspired him to focus on his duties and obligations towards his people and the gods.
The Babylonians believed that if the king teared up, Marduk, the patron god would approve him to be king for another year. Central to this celebration was making promises, similar to modern resolutions. These promises were believed to be key to divine favour and communal prosperity in the upcoming year.
It was not until circa 46 BC that Julius Caesar established January 1st as the start of the new year (the Julian calendar)5. The month was named after the Roman god, Janus, depicted with 2 faces and inhabiting doorways and arches, symbolically looking back on the previous year and forward to the coming year. Like the Babylonians, the Romans would make sacrifices and offerings and pledge their allegiance to the god Janus and the emperor.
However, by the Middle Ages (circa 1000 AD), the Julian calendar had resulted in an extra 7 days due to an inbuilt error of 1 day per 128 years, due to a miscalculation of the solar year by 11 minutes. To solve such problems Pope Gregory XIII officially reinstated January 1st as the start of a new year in 1582, with the instigation of the Gregorian calendar, which we still use today.
Please note that not all religions and cultures adopted the Gregorian calendar, with many continuing to use a lunar calendar and observing the beginning of a new year on days other than 1st January.
It wasn’t until 1813 that the term ‘New Year resolution’ was first used in print by a Boston newspaper article named ‘The Friday Lecture’, writing:
And yet, I believe there are multitudes of people, accustomed to receive injunctions of new year resolutions, who will sin all the month of December, with a serious determination of beginning the new year with new resolutions and new behaviour, and with the full belief that they shall thus expiate and wipe away all their former faults
Unknown Author, 18136
Throughout history, religion and spirituality, as well as moral character have played a major part in the resolutions and pledges made.
The New Era of the New Year’s Resolution
Over time, New Year’s resolutions have become less about denying physical indulgences to general self-improvement. However, this year it is expected that many people will make financially oriented goals, such as saving more and spending less, particularly as the cost of living continues to increase.
10 Tips to Help with Sticking to Your Resolutions
If you want to set yourself resolutions for the year ahead, a good place to start is to reflect on the year coming to a close. Sometimes the difference between success and failure is simply choosing the right goals and the process by which you hope to achieve them.
The most common day to break your New Year resolution is 12th January.
The key to keeping your resolutions is:
- Set ‘new’ resolutions, rather than pursuing goals that you did not achieve last year.
- Plan your resolutions
- Focus on just one goal at a time.
- Be realistic
- Reward small gains along the way
- Write down your goals and keep a resolution journal
- Make shared resolutions
- Enlist help from technology. Take a look at this article for reviews of the best apps for sticking to your New Year’s resolutions. If you wish to explore the benefits of technology further, read my article Tech Savvy Seniors – Exploring the Benefits of Modern Technology for Seniors.
- Share your resolutions with others. We can be tempted to keep our goals to ourselves, in case we don’t achieve them. However, telling others about your resolutions can help hold you accountable7.
- Make your resolution a habit. Habits don’t form overnight. Research suggests that it takes an average of 66 days for a new habit to form. So give yourself time, and be kind to yourself if you have some minor setbacks along the way8.
Why do we Continue?
Ultimately, we continue to make New Year resolutions because it has become the social ‘norm’ to do so. For 4000 years people have been making promises to ensure prosperity for the year ahead. The modern vision of the resolution may have changed somewhat, but the underpinning concept is still the same. People feel that making a resolution and aspiring to ‘be better’ somehow makes us better people. The beauty of goal setting is that you don’t need the fireworks and celebrations at the strike of midnight to signal a fresh start – you can recommit to your resolutions at any time.
So, on that note. Good luck with keeping your New Year’s resolutions and have a very happy, healthy and prosperous New Year!
- Cambridge University Press & Assessment (2023) Cambridge Dictionary, accessed 29/12/2023,New Year’s resolution – Cambridge English Dictionary ↩︎
- Saranga Sudarshan & Joshua Godfrey (2023) New Year’s Resolutions 2024, Finder, accessed 29/12/2023, New Year’s resolutions 2024 | finder.com.auNew Year’s resolutions 2024 | finder.com.auNew Year’s resolutions 2024 | finder.com.au ↩︎
- Max Phillips (2020) Why Only 8% of People Achieve Their Goals, According to Research, Ascent Publication, accessed 29/12/2023,Why Only 8% of People Achieve Their Goals, According to Research | by Max Phillips | Ascent Publication | Medium ↩︎
- Sarah Pruitt (2023) The History of New Years Resolutions, History, accessed 29/12/2023, The History of New Year’s Resolutions | HISTORY ↩︎
- Joanna Dickson (2023) Where Did the New Year’s Resolution Come From? Well We’ve Been Making Them For 4000 Years, The Conversation, accessed 29/12/2023, Where did the new year’s resolution come from? Well, we’ve been making them for 4,000 years (theconversation.com) ↩︎
- Catherine Boeckmann (2023) The Interesting History Behind New Year’s Resolutions, Almanac, accessed 29/12/2023,How Did the Tradition of New Year’s Resolutions Begin? | The Old Farmer’s Almanac How Did the Tradition of New Year’s Resolutions Begin? | The Old Farmer’s Almanac ↩︎
- Elizabeth Yuko (2023) How to Keep New Year’s Resolutions, According to Experts, Real Simple, Accessed 29/12/2023, How to Keep New Year’s Resolutions, According to Experts (realsimple.com)How to Keep New Year’s Resolutions, According to Experts (realsimple.com) ↩︎
- Cultivating Health (2022) 7 Tips to Keep Your New Year’s Resolution, UC Davis Health, Accessed 29/12/2023,7 tips to keep your New Year’s resolution (ucdavis.edu) ↩︎
