According to Wikipedia, the tradition of making New Year’s Resolutions goes back to the ancient Babylonians. The most common goals include losing weight, exercising more, spending less money and getting a better job. One study suggests that 88% of resolutions fail, and only 52% of the study’s participants were actually confident in their abilities to succeed when they first started!
So, is there value to making New Year’s Resolutions?
In all honesty, I’ve never understood the fixation with celebrating the new calendar year. It will often take me until the end of January to actually be able to write the new year when writing the days date. As someone who has been a student for fifteen-and-a-half year now, the new school year is always more significant for me. When someone asks me when a milestone occurred, I’m significantly more likely to say “In Grade 5” than “In 2003.”
More frequently, my resolutions tend to occur when I begin a new school year. I’ll resolve to study more, procrastinate less and do the suggested readings in addition to the required readings. It doesn’t always happen, of course, but I think that it is in my nature is to hope that the new year will always be better than the previous year.
Having said all that, I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t pick a few New Year’s Resolutions for 2013. But, I think I’ll keep them to myself, even though Wikipedia says that women are 10% more successful in achieving their goals when they share them publicly.