The new year is here and I, for one, am ready for 2023! This past year has been a doozy and I’m ready to wipe the slate clean and begin a fresh new year as I’m sure many of you may be as well.
It’s always exciting at the start of a new year. The wonder and anticipation of what is to come can fill you with excitement and desire to make resolutions for the upcoming year to improve yourself, your relationships, and your life. But those resolutions may not be the best way to start the new year.
Resolutions and How They Began
Dating back 4000 years ago, the ancient Babylonians are believed to be the first to make New Year’s resolutions. Their new year, however, began in March with the planting of crops rather than in January.
During their celebration, they either welcomed a new king or restated their loyalty to the current king. They also made promises to pay back their debts and return borrowed items believing that if they kept their promises, the pagan gods would reward them with good fortune in the new year. These promises are believed to be the start of the New Year’s resolution tradition.
Evolution of Resolutions
The beginning of a new year was later changed to January 1st by Roman emperor Julius Caesar around 46 B.C. January was named after a two-faced god, Janus, whose spirit was believed to inhabit doorways and arches. The Romans, believing that Janus symbolically looked back into the previous year and ahead into the future, made promises to the god of good conduct for the upcoming year.
Current Tradition
Over the years, the first day of each new year became the traditional occasion to reflect on one’s past mistakes and resolve to improve and do better in the future. Rather than making promises to the gods, most resolutions now focus on self-improvement and making promises to yourself. While about half make resolutions each year, the percentage of people maintaining their resolutions six months later drastically drops.
The chart below (Fig. 1) from a 2021 survey of 1500 respondents, identified the most popular resolutions. While any one of these resolutions is a valuable goal, many often find it difficult to stick to and see it through. Setting goals is great, but there also has to be a plan to reach them.
For example, if you know you aren’t living the healthiest lifestyle and want to change that, you may make a New Year’s resolution to live healthier. This is an excellent start! You have reflected a bit and determined that is an area of growth for you and maybe even your entire family.
However, if you don’t plan “how” to achieve your goal, you may become discouraged and find your resolution has been broken quickly.
Setting Intentions Can Help You Reach Your Goals
What’s the difference between a resolution and an intention? Well, a resolution is more of a goal or result. Setting an intention requires you to reflect on your behaviors or daily life and identify those that need to change to meet your goal. It’s making a plan.
For example, if your goal is to live a healthier life this year, and you drink a lot of soda, you might set your intention to replace soda with a healthy beverage. Setting your intention is like identifying an “action” that will help you reach your goal.
You could start with one intention, like replacing soda with water for January, and once you’ve created a new healthier habit you can set a new healthy intention. Setting intentions in small manageable actions can help you stay focused on your goal, provide positive reinforcement when you are successful, and keep you on the path toward attaining your goal.
Setting intentions can be done daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annually. It may be helpful to start with daily or weekly intentions and then reflect on your progress at the end of each week and set intentions for the next day or week.
Stating a resolution can often put pressure on yourself, make you feel deprived, and without a plan may quickly fall by the wayside. Make the focus on self-improvement. We all want to become better versions of ourselves and improve our relationships. Make your intentions manageable and reflect on your progress often to help keep you on track. Before you know it, setting intentions will also be a new healthy habit. 🙂
Happy New Year to each of you!!
~Nicole