When a new year is this close, people make resolutions. A New Year’s
resolution is a commitment that a person makes to one or more personal
goals, projects, or the reforming of a habit. New year resolutions are
made in anticipation of the New Year and new beginnings, with plans to
adhere strictly to the new rules for one’s life in the coming year.
We are just hours to the new year in Nigeria, and many who are in the
habit of making resolutions for the new year would have done so
already. Sadly, people hardly stand by the resolutions they make.
Resolutions however help in goal setting. Gretchen Rubin (author of
best-seller “The Happiness Project”) once said; “You hit a goal, you
achieve a goal. You keep a resolution”.
For those who say celebrating Christmas is idolatry, making
resolutions may also be as its religious origin is connected Babylonian
and Roman gods.
The ancient Babylonians made promises to their gods at the start of
each year that they would return borrowed objects and pay their debts.
The Romans began each year by making promises to the god Janus, for whom the month of January is named.
Also, during Judaism’s New Year, Rosh Hashanah, through the High
Holidays and culminating in Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement), one is to
reflect upon one’s wrongdoings over the year and both seek and offer
forgiveness.
At watchnight services across the country today, many Christians will
prepare for the year ahead by praying and making these resolutions.
Popular goals over the years include resolutions to:
• Improve well-being: lose weight, exercise more, eat better, drink less alcohol, quit smoking, stop biting nails
• Improve finances: get out of debt, save money
• Improve career: get a better job
• Improve education: improve grades, get a better education, learn
something new (such as a foreign language or music), study often
• Improve self: become more organized, reduce stress, be less grumpy,
manage time, be more independent, perhaps watch less television, play
fewer sitting-down video games
• Take a trip
• Volunteer to help others, practice life skills, use civic virtue, give to charity
• Get along better with people
• Cutting down on drinking
• Making new friends
• Trying foriegn foods
A 2007 study by Richard Wisemen from the University of Bristol
involving 3,000 people showed that 88% of those who set New Year
resolutions fail, despite the fact that 52% of the study’s participants
were confident of success at the beginning. Men achieved their goal 22%
more often when they engaged in goal setting, (a system where small
measurable goals are being set; such as, a pound a week, instead of
saying “lose weight”), while women succeeded 10% more when they made
their goals public and got support from their friends.
Quoting Frank Ra (author of the new year’s resolution book “A course
in happiness”): “Resolutions are more sustainable when shared, both in
terms of with whom you share the benefits of your resolution, and with
whom you share the path of maintaining your resolution. Peer-support
makes a difference in success rate with new year’s resolutions”.
It may help if you make your New Year’s resolutions for 2013 with
your friends as that may prove more promising of success than making
resolutions alone.
What are your New Year’s resolutions? Have you made any yet?
Source: wikipedia