Today on this 5th day of December, I am realizing that we will soon be passing into a new decade on January 1. My how the time flies. Traditionally the new year means New Year’s resolutions, that time of the year when we say to ourselves, I am going to finally lose that 10 pounds, I am going to start eating better, I am finally going to start using that treadmill that has been in my garage since last Christmas. Did you know that becoming more healthy either by dieting, exercising or quitting a bad habit is the number one resolution people make? You know what else, 80% of resolutions fail by the 12th of January. As best I can determine, although the celebration of a new year was originated by the ancient Babylonians about 4,000 years ago, the making of New Year’s resolutions dates back to the Romans during the reign of Julius Caesar about 100 BC. Either way we have been at this for a long time.
Why is it do you think we bother to make New Year’s resolutions? Statistically a bit over half of us do and psychologists suggest that we make them from an inherent longing to improve ourselves, to want to be better in some way than we are at the present moment. Why January 1? Again the thinking is that January 1 is the time when we can simultaneously look back at a year past and look forward to a year coming up fresh without any of the disruptions and unplanned events that overtook us last year. That all sounds pretty reasonable to me and in general I think resolutions are a good thing even if many of them fail.
Think about this however, odds are that many of you even now are contemplating making a New Year’s resolution, and good for you, but my question would be why wait, why not do it now? Like many things, resolutions are not like a fine wine, they don’t get better with age so what are you waiting for? If you have some area of your life you want to make better, no matter what it is, get started, today, this hour, this minute.
Have a great weekend everybody.
Ed
