The New Year never fails to bring a feeling of renewal, and the opportunity for a second chance – at everything.
And the prospect of spring just around the corner makes people believe they can start life anew. After the Champagne and ringing in of the New Year, and in this year’s case, a brand new decade, it starts with resolutions – a practice that is nothing new. We have all made them and will continue to do so. We are all looking to make some kind of self-improvement, which is actually a good thing.
Ernest Hemingway once said, “There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.”
The ancient Babylonians are believed to have started the tradition of resolutions 4,000 years ago, and included it in their week-long festival to help keep themselves in good standing with the gods.
Ancient Romans offered resolutions to Janus, the god of beginnings, endings and the New Year.
A tradition with much more recent beginnings allows visitors to Times Square in New York City to write a New Year’s resolutions or wish on pieces of official Times Square New Year’s Eve confetti and attach it to a wishing wall. The wishes will be included in the confetti that comes down on the crowd gathered in Times Square on New Year’s Eve.
The wishing wall stays up year-round. When it becomes full, the wishes are taken down and saved until Dec. 30, when they are mixed with 2,000 pounds of regular confetti to be dropped at the stroke of midnight. For people who can’t make it to New York, wishes can be sent online at timessquarenyc.org or on Twitter and Instagram using #ConfettiWish. Wishes made or sent after Dec. 28 each year go in the following New Year’s Eve celebration confetti.
So what kind of resolutions do people make – on their own or on the confetti?
A promise to lose weight is one of the most popular. While starting weight loss on Monday or the first of the month is one way of starting something fresh, the idea of beginning a diet or major life change on the first day of the whole year, is like being reborn.
Even if last year’s resolutions went by the wayside – this year might be different. There’s new hope.
The key lies in setting reasonable goals. Most experts agree that you should not vow to do something that is impossible to stick to and then beat yourself up because you couldn’t follow through. By the same token, setting goals too low will not be as fulfilling as a resolution that can really make a difference in your health, your relationships, your life or the life of someone else.
A “too lofty” resolution might be setting a goal to lose 50 pounds. That seems almost unattainable. But if goals are broken down into smaller milestones, like losing 10 pounds every couple of months, pretty soon that original 50-pound goal has been literally whittled down to a number not quite so intimidating.
Saying you will immediately begin running 5 miles a day is also a little ambitious. Start out with walking 1 mile, then adding distance as you begin to get in shape. Or strength training twice a week – and building on that.
Adding more vegetables and less junk food to your diet or cutting down on soft drinks is a positive step toward improving health, with a side benefit of weight loss.
A few other common resolutions that crop up on a number of good intention lists are helping other people, changing career paths, going back to school, saving money, smoking cessation, getting more sleep and volunteering in the community.
How many of these actually stick? Statistics show that many resolutions bite the dust before mid-January. But as the saying goes; if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. There is not a New Year’s set of rules stating that a new goal or a change for the better can only occur on Jan. 1.
One local college girl said that at first her resolution for last year to lose weight didn’t seem to happen. But she stuck to it and exercised more during the summer months, and ended up attaining her goal.
She got a new treadmill at home and then started working at a new summer job where she worked outside – which helped.
Pairing up with a partner, a mentor or a supporter that can help keep you on track can be very helpful with the success of many goals and programs – not just weight loss. When weakness strikes one, the other person can be strong and keep things going.
An important step in making resolutions is to also keep your list at an attainable size, along with the goals themselves. Don’t try to do everything in one year or at least not in one month. If your first resolution seems to go well, you can always add something on in later months. But trying to make too many changes all at once can bring failure in all of them.
Pick the one that will mean the most to you, and once it’s under control, move on to the next.
Don’t try to start spending more time with everyone you know all at once – takes too much time. Pick one person at a time and begin adjusting your schedule accordingly. It’s easier to squeeze more time into a schedule a little at a time.
Don’t overload yourself with too many new classes or programs that you can’t possibly have time to complete successfully. Try one or two new things at a time and work yourself into the habit of studying and making deadlines.
The bottom line is to be reasonable. Don’t expect too much of yourself but don’t let yourself off the hook too easily. Plan things ahead of time. Write down goals and set milestones; if you don’t meet one, reset it, but don’t give up.
Set short-term goals to help measure progress along the way and give yourself a feeling of accomplishment. Set long-term goals to keep focused on the future giving you something to look forward to accomplishing.
Just as the New Year keeps rolling around, the inclination for people to start anew will follow. New Year’s resolutions are not likely to go out of fashion, nor the human need to look to the future with the hope of self-improvement and making the world a better place.
In fact, the traditional song for most English-speaking people to sing on New Year’s Eve is “Auld Lang Syne,” which means, roughly, “times gone by” – really the culmination of New Year’s Eve – looking back at the old with a look toward the new. Few people get through the whole song using exactly the right words, but according to the web site of Robert Burns, an 18th-century Scottish poet credited with writing the tune, the correct wording is this:
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And auld lang syne!
For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne.
We’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.
And surely ye’ll be your pint stowp!
And surely I’ll be mine!
And we’ll tak a cup o’kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.
