New Year Resolutions

Posted by Diana Tierney Jan 9, 2007

Lewis Black said it best when he said “New Years is something that we made up. It’s a made up holiday.” The holiday was made up centuries ago so that we could keep track of time so that the population knew when it was planting season etc. As with just about every holiday that we celebrate today this one too was banned by the church. The New Year celebrations were moved to Christ folklore such as the circumcision of Christ and his birth etc. Obviously that ban was lifted and ever since people have rung in the New Year by drinking too much and making resolutions.

Every year you hear about the New Year resolutions that people make. According to the website About.com the resolution that is made the most is to spend more time with family and friends. Being more fit in the New Year only comes in at number two, which is ironic because there are an overwhelming number of ads for fitness centers during the month of January. Really though, are we actually going to keep these resolutions? It seems that by the end of February, March at the latest that resolution that we were so determined to fulfill in the beginning of January is completely forgotten. And that gym membership we purchased, well the membership card is already collecting dust in the deepest darkest corner of some desk drawer. I gave up on making New Year resolutions when I was in high school. It wasn’t for my own laziness, well maybe it was. I just came to know myself well enough to know that I wasn’t going to do that resolution I had set my mind too. I have a low attention span so for my by the second week of January I had given up. Is the problem with New Year resolutions that they are something new we are trying to fit into our schedule or our hopes so high that if we don’t get immediate results that we just give up?

As I look around my home, that quite frankly has yet to recover from the holidays and my office that is in serious need of organization I am wondering, is it time for me to start making resolutions again?

Perhaps instead of trying to bring in this radical change to our lives, if there is something that we want to change we should strive to make resolutions continuously throughout the year. As the old saying goes: How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. Perhaps this same philosophy can be taken on with our resolutions as well, one step at a time. After all it’s like Lewis Black said, New Years is just a holiday that we made up. We don’t need it to make an immediate significant change in our lives just because of this holiday. If we want to make a change we should be able to make it at any time because we want it.