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New Year’s resolutions
Why do we make them but can’t keep them?
By Paul Gordon
I Resolve To…
The Present
N
ew Year’s resolutions: It
is a safe bet that all of us
have made them at one
or many times in our lives.
It’s probably just as safe to bet
all of us have failed to keep at
least some of those resolutions, if
not all of them.
That begs the question, why
do people make New Year’s
resolutions, especially if the
chances are they won’t be kept?
According to the experts —
psychologists and such that
study these questions — people
make resolutions because they
do actually want to better
themselves. They want to get
healthier, look better, feel better,
treat others better and the list
goes on.
“The first reason, I guess,
is that it is tradition. And
yes, people want to improve
themselves. But I also think it
has a lot to with control, a feeling
that ‘I can start over again, have
a new beginning,’” said Peoria
psychologist Joy Miller. “People
want and need to have power to
make changes in their lives and
take control of their lives.”
It’s not surprising, given the
relative youth of this country,
that making New Year’s
resolutions apparently comes
from rituals of other lands, in
other times. Some were religious,
others were simply traditions.
In England, according to
author Mary Bodel, people
performed rituals on the first day
of the year that were meant to
signify how the rest of their year
would go. “As an example, if you
were a farmer you’d try to plow
some land. A housewife might
bake bread or do some sewing
and so on,” she said.
Bodel said the Scots had a
tradition called “first footer.”
They wait to see who comes
through the front door first in the
new year and “gender, hair color
and other attributes declared
whether it would be a good year
or a bad year.”
Wow. Talk about pressure.
But the origin of the new
year’s resolution, much research
shows, goes back 4000 years with
a Babylonian ritual centering
on making amends and making
peace. Articles about that ritual
also say the problem with
keeping resolutions dates back
just as far.
Statistics on how many make
resolutions and successfully keep
them vary with each study of the
subject. All, however, agree that
more people than not fail to keep
the resolution beyond the first
month.
The experts say the reasons for
that are varied, as well, but less
so.
Miller said like anything else
a person wants to achieve in life,
commitment to the resolution is
the first necessity. If a person isn’t
committed to stop smoking or to
lose 50 pounds, it is unlikely he
or she will be able to do so.
“Unfortunately most people
don’t have that commitment
because they aren’t doing it
for the right reasons or for
themselves. Their reasons are
less internal than external, such
as doing it because someone else
wants them to do it. The chances
of succeeding under those
circumstances are not very high,”
she said.
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thePeorian.com