The new year has started, the holidays are over, and people are now reluctantly returning to their usual business while trying to circulate eggnog out of their systems. As always, this January is a time of detoxes, brand new gym memberships (that don’t last far beyond the first visit), and of course, resolutions. There is no better chance to turn it all around than in the new year, a clean slate! So we pour ourselves the last glass of wine, light the last cigarette, eat the last bar of chocolate, and write down what we will do differently before Earth manages to spin around the Sun once again. It feels natural that as one year comes to a close our system calls for a reboot.
So the question is how much are New Year’s resolutions a product of tradition and how much is an outcome of biological cycle? Probably a bit of both. After all, tradition is nothing more than a cultural recognition of repeated behavioural pattern. Take Christmas, for instance. It is now known as the day Christ was born, yet before that it was a pagan holiday celebrating Winter Solstice. Looking at it from a natural point of view it was simply our way of recognizing that the planet was closer to the Sun and therefore days would be longer.
New Year’s resolutions aren’t as traceable, reason being that it isn’t as well of an established custom. We aren’t prompted by our surroundings about doing or not doing it. You’ll probably never hear your neighbour ask: “Have you made a list of your resolutions yet? And what colour is the paper? Oh, where did you buy the ink? You know Walmart ran all out of the glittery one!”
Still, most of us can’t escape at least thinking about things we want to change. Essentially, there is nothing wrong with that — if we wouldn’t repeat ourselves most of the time. Resolutions should serve as change indicators in our way of living. We put down the same unrealistic goals, and then just wipe what we’ve learned clean the next year. We decide on things we know we won’t do for resolutions. And so it becomes something akin to a preached mantra.
Mine is a prime example: the only thing on the list at the moment is becoming a pirate. It’s been there since I was five, but it’s 2017 now. I have a whole year to pretend to try to make it come true ye landlubber. Arrr!
