New Year’s Resolutions: Why Do We Make Them?

By Dr. Renae Norton

Well, it is New Year’s Eve and I am trying to get an inspiring article done for the week and what better topic than New Year’s resolutions? By the way, that was my resolution last year, to publish at least one article a week. I did ok with it in that I achieved my goal about 90% of the time. (I lapsed when I was traveling…but I’m ok with that.)

So what was my secret? I committed to doing something that I love, something that energizes me…..writing, and in particular, writing about something that I think my patients will like, appreciate, or find useful. This just makes me happy. Every time a patient tells me that the article inspired her or that it helped him with a wellness issue that he never thought he’d solve, I am rewarded for the effort 100-fold. 

That is not the gist of the most common New Year’s resolutions according to the experts.

Check out this list:

1. 1.  Exercise more
   2.  Lose weight (diets fail 95% of the time…I’m just saying)
   3.  Get organized (I am personally obsessed with decluttering. I freaking love it.)
   4.  Learn a new skill or hobby
   5.  Live life to the fullest (what does that even mean?)
   6.  Save more money / spend less money (this assumes we have control over how much things cost)
   7.  Quit smoking
   8.  Quit drinking
   9.  Spend more time with family and friends
   10.  Read more

Given the fact that 64 % of new year’s resolutions are broken by the second month of the year for which they are made, you would think that we would stop making them, right?  Apparently not. According to Inc.com about 60 percent of us make them, but only 8% of us are successful in keeping them.

The History of New Year’s Resolutions

Let’s start with the basics: Where did this tradition come from? Why do we make New Year’s resolutions? Maybe if we know that we can understand why despite the fact that it isn’t working for many of us we still keep doing it.

The answer, it turns out, traces back 3,000 to 4,000 years, to the ancient Babylonian festival of Akitu, which was actually celebrated in March or April marking the start of the farming season, and was based on the Babylonian calendar. They also exchanged gifts of figs and honey or other foodstuffs that represented prosperity. Their “resolution” was to remain loyal to the republic and the emperor, according to historians of this time.

When it comes to ancient forms of New Year’s resolutions, the logic was a long-held desire to be better. Throughout history we see the same principle at play in many countries that also have New Year’s resolutions:

In Ireland, having a clean house at the start of the year symbolized a fresh start and the luck of the house for the coming year.

There’s also the figuratively regenerative burning of the Año Viejo in Colombia, Ecuador, and other parts of Latin America. In this out-with-the-old tradition, which is Spanish for “old year,” families stuff a life-size male doll with memories of the outgoing year or other materials and dress it in their clothing before setting the doll ablaze at midnight.

More recent versions of New Year’s rituals have their roots in Colonial America. Take for example, the 17th- and 18th-century Puritans who expressed the desire to avoid debauchery in the coming years by committing to be better in the new year. In 1740, John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, introduced the Covenant Renewal Service as an alternative to raucous celebrations, which included night watch services, hymn singing, and reflection.

Over several years, New England theologian Jonathan Edwards, a notable figure in the First Great Awakening, created a list of 70 resolutions for himself to live by, which included treating people with kindness and avoiding gossip.

One of the earliest surviving written references to a New Year’s resolution as we know it is found in the diary of Anne Halkett, a Scottish writer of religious texts. On 2 January 1671 she made a note of her intentions for the coming year under the heading of… wait for it…’‘ resolutions.” This isolated reference is likely indicative of a more widespread practice for that time.

Another old tradition: Breaking resolutions

So not only have people been making New Year’s resolutions for centuries, they apparently have also been breaking them. By the 19th century, mentions of the aspirational practice were appearing in newspaper and magazine articles and cartoons, often referencing people’s failure to maintain their resolutions.

An 1802 article from Walker’s Hibernian Magazine is an example: “The following personages have begun the year with a strong (list) of resolutions, which they all solemnly pledged to keep. … Statesmen have resolved to have no other object in view than the good of their country … the physicians have determined to follow nature in her operations, and to prescribe no more than is necessary, and to be very moderate in their fees.” The article goes on to explain the ways in which the majority of these “resolutions” were broken.

The bottom line is that New Year’s resolutions were a firm tradition by the 20th century having moved beyond a religious context. Although the motivation may have shifted from religious to cultural, i.e. from “avoiding gluttony” to “eating healthy” the goal is to start fresh and do better and it appears to be a universal impulse.

Making your New Year’s Resolutions Happen

Despite the best of intentions, once the glow of a fresh new year wears off, many people struggle to make good on their plans. According to a study published in the Journal of Clinical Psychology, only 46% of people who made New Year’s resolutions were successful. That means over half of the people who set a goal for the new year will fail!

That said, there is something to be said for the resolution, as the study also involved “non-resolvers,” or people who did not make a New Year’s resolution, but had a goal they wanted to achieve that year. Only 4% of non-resolvers were successful at achieving their goals, a far bleaker result than those who did actually make a New Year’s resolution.

As a psychologist or a student of human behavior, I have given this some thought, done the research, and come up with a few suggestions:

1.    Less is more.

Keep it simple. Choose the most important thing but also the most likely to succeed and go with that.

2.    Mentally prepare for change.

Think of the things you would like to change and rank them in importance as well as in likelihood of success. Incorporate the most likely to succeed that are actually important. Be brutally honest with yourself. What did I set out to do last year? Where did I make progress? Where did I fail?

3.  Stay positive

Set a goal that motivates you. Make sure you are not doing this for someone else.  Spend a little time thinking about your priorities. Make it about something you have always wanted to do/have/see/eat/read….etc.

4. Limit resolutions to one or two, tops.

A common mistake in resolution setting is having too many resolutions and spreading yourself too thin. It is so much better to have a huge success with one goal than mediocre success or failure with 10 goals. Right?

When it comes to setting resolutions, it’s easy to set bad goals that could lead to poor follow-through. Fortunately, SMART goal-setting framework that I use in DBT training can really help here:

SMART goals are:

• Specific – Eating healthy is not a goal. Eating organic, grass-fed, wild-caught is.
• Measurable – Quantify your resolution if possible, i.e. I will eat all of my fruits and vegetables organic, most of my protein grass-fed, and add wild-caught fish at least 1 time per week.
• Attainable – In changing your diet be sure to incorporate the cost of the organic food and the time needed to shop and prepare food. (I almost never spend more than 8 minutes making an organic dinner with a vegetable, protein, and fruit.)
• Relevant – Keep it relevant to your priorities and goals. Be sure you understand exactly why you are making this resolution.
• Time-sensitive – Give yourself a time frame in which to achieve your goal. Be realistic.

6.    Write down your goals and/or share them with someone

For one thing, you can see subgoals when you write them down. In the example above, eating organic, etc means going grocery shopping ? times per week, having certain things on hand, like milk or eggs, cereal, salad fixings, etc.

Telling someone is a great way of holding yourself accountable.

Writing them down helps to establish intention.

Here are a few ways you can document your resolutions for 2025:

• Write them in a journal
•  Draft an email to yourself
• Store in Evernote or some other note-taking tool

5. Automate where possible

The good news is you probably have technology in your pocket that can help you follow through on your resolution – automation in the form of reminder apps.

Nowadays there are a million different apps and services to help you follow through on your resolutions. These free tools can help provide a constant reminder:

• Google Calendar: Set a recurring meeting tied to your resolution, i.e. scheduling workout sessions at the gym.
• Google Now: Personal assistant that provides information as you need it.
• Reminders (on iOS): Set up timed alerts for tasks.
• Boomerang for Gmail: Schedule reminder emails to yourself (Freemium).

On top of these commonly used apps, there are also “to-do list” and task management apps that have the ability to schedule reminders and milestones. Here are a few popular choices:

• Asana
• Trello
• Todoist
• Microsoft To Do
• Omnifocus
• Things

Note: All of these apps listed above won’t help you do the work, but they do serve a constant reminder of the work that needs to be done.

6. Review your resolution regularly

• The idea is to build in goal review into your routine.
• Schedule a monthly “big picture” review during the first week of each month. This will serve as a planning meeting where you distribute smaller tasks and goals to different weeks throughout the month.
• Do a weekly check-in to check progress on the monthly goal.
• Set a daily reminder for smaller resolution tasks.

7. If you fall down, get back up

Rome was not built in a day. Old habits die hard, new ones take time. Pace yourself!

8. Build in some rewards.

When you reach a goal, reward yourself.

Also, keep the following ideas in mind:

• Skipping an intermediate task is not a complete failure
• Missing a goal by 10% or even 80% is not a complete failure
• Finishing a task late is not a complete failure
• A moment of weakness is meaningless in the grand scheme of things

The key is to stay positive and to be aware of your successes as much as you are of your misses. But if there is a setback, it’s important to understand what led to it, and how you can avoid it in the future, For example, for me when it comes to working out “If I don’t go work out first thing in the morning, I won’t work out.”  Fortunately, I am an early riser, so it is the first thing I do almost every morning.

Also, once a mistake is made, own it and move on to the next thing. For example, if you skipped a study session, make it up tomorrow. A few small mistakes shouldn’t spoil your resolution for the year!