What is it that makes the First of January different from every other day of the year? Why are we extra “motivated” during the initial phase of every new year?
Let’s make an attempt to figure out why resolutions look like a powerful way for achieving every goal that we weren’t able to in the previous year. And while we are at it, let’s try to identify are resolutions actually powerful change catalysts? or is there a more effective, alternative way in which we can get the desired change?
I don’t believe in New Year’s resolutions. I think if you want to change something, change it today and don’t wait until the New Year.
Georgina Bloomberg
Reality check everyone, We are already one week in to the New Year 2022.
Going back a week or two, apart from “Merry Christmas”, “Season’s greetings”, “Happy New Year” and “Same to you”, some of the most common sentences we hear during the so called “most wonderful time of the year” look somewhat familiar to the following.
- “This year I will ________________” (Fill in the blank)
- “My new year’s resolution is ____________” (A pattern emerges)
- “For sure, this is the year when I finally __________” (Guess what?)
These bold declarations, fondly referred to as resolutions, are a mainstay of our holidays. As soon as December begins, a lot of us start formulating these statements for ourselves, with the vision that as soon as the clock strikes 12 on the 31st, everything in our lives will magically change.
Why do resolutions seem like powerful change catalysts?
The only thing that changes when the new year comes in is the year. However, the apparent effect of this numeric change is much larger.
The word “new” always brings in a sense of excitement. The new year isn’t untouched by this phenomenon. The excitement of impeding change gives us a sense of motivation, albeit short lived. It seems that all the lethargy we have built up in our bodies and minds will be gone, all our internal inhibitions that have stopped us from acting upon our resolutions will disappear and everything that has so far been out of our control will suddenly become a docile circumstance.
Now, it is completely up to us to build upon this motivation, use it and make sure we stick to our guns and turn our resolutions in to reality. However, most of our resolutions hardly make it past the first month of the year.
This begs the question, why do most resolutions fail?
Why don’t Resolutions work?
Boiling the ocean
New Year’s Resolutions are habits that are supposed to stick for the minimum duration of one year. One year, 365 days, seems like a long time (although I still can’t recall where the last five of my life went).
Therefore, we set 20 resolutions for ourselves to accomplish during the year; ranging anywhere from “being more healthy” to “become the president of India”. And even more interestingly, most of these are projects, which we underestimate as tasks. Hence, the estimate of time we figure will be required to complete them is way too small as compared to the actual need. In a nutshell, we try to accomplish a lot of things together, with not enough time or energy in our reserves which we can attribute to them.
Procrastination on an annual scale
I am certain every reader must have done this at one point or the other. You have a paper due for submission. After completing all important activities of the day, like catching up on the remainder of the episode from last night on Netflix and eating for the 3rd time in the span of two hours, you finally decide that you will start working on the paper at 2:00 PM. At round 1:27 PM, an interesting and urgent Instagram post catches your eye.
79 Instagram posts and 2 YouTube videos later, you check the clock, and it is 2:19 PM. Let me ask you a question, do you start working at 2:07 PM? I have never done this, because I ought to start right at the hour, right?
Resolutions play a similar part, but on an annual basis. Let’s say you set a goal in January, and you lost track of it by June and due to revision in November (which we hardly ever do. cheap plug, read my previous article hyperlinked on the word itself), you realized that you have lost track of the goal, do you restart from November? Nope.
“January is just around the corner. That’s when I’ll start”
Am I against goal setting? Absolutely not. Setting goals is the first step to being successful. My argument is against the temporal dependence of goals. Based on my very limited experience, I have come to one conclusion, when it comes to lasting change or transformations.
For permanent transformation, the inspiration shouldn’t be the time of the year, but the need of the change itself.
If you stuck around this far, thank you for your time. If you enjoyed this, share this with one friend of yours whom you think will benefit from reading this. Thanks for reading, and I will see you in the next one.
Facets of Life 
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