New Year Resolutions

So here we are on the 2^nd January 2014, and I wonder how many of us have given up on our New Year’s resolutions already? I have to say I am still going strong and hope that I can at last beat the smoking habit, but I know it will be a bumpy road!

The tradition of making promises of self improvement has a long history. It is believed that the ancient Babylonians began the New Year by making promises to their gods that they would repay debts and return any borrowed items. Today they resolutions often focus on a person’s self improvement. It may be that an individual decides to lose weight, cut down on their consumption of alcohol or, like me, try and give up smoking. Alternatively, it may be that he or she resolves to do something positive to improve physical or mental health, such as join a yoga class or sports team, or learn a foreign language.  Others may decide to look at their finances and resolve to get a better paid job, start saving for a family holiday or pay off debts and start living within their budget. Others still may resolve to make regular donations to a charity they support or volunteer to help out in some way that will make a difference.

There will be a lot of us, millions (if not billions) across the world, who will have made a New Year’s resolution. Unfortunately, many people will fail. I have seen some statistics that suggest only between 8% - 12% of people actually achieve what they set out to do. Personally I think many of these who fail probably set their goals a little too high to begin with, you know “I want to be a size 8, have a fabulous, high paid job and travel the world,” may be just a bit too much to aim for in one year! If you really want to keep to your resolution best to set yourself small goals, for example if you want to lose weight look at losing 2-3lb a week, rather than stating I need to lose 4 stone by next year.  Set achievable targets that can be measured and slowly but surely you will start to see the effects you desire.

However, to me the failure rate of New Years resolutions is not really important, if we all achieved all our goals this year what would we do next year or the year after? No, what I think is important is that every year we feel optimistic about the start of a New Year. We plan and resolve to bring about changes to improve ourselves, our lives and the lives of others. That says to me that even in these days of unrest and discontentment that we are still hoping and planning for a better future -now that is something to celebrate!       

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