“Well, I declare!” – Let’s Talk New Year’s Resolutions

Would you rather listen instead? Click here for the 17-minute audio recording.

 
Every New Year’s Eve, millions of people around the globe celebrate with the hope that next year will be better than the last. Are you planning yours?

A Finder survey (Finder.com) in 2021 revealed that 141.1 million adult Americans — or 55.31% of all American adults — think that following through on their New Year’s resolutions is well within the cards. However, some 25.98% of adult Americans were rolling into the new year without personal goals on their agenda.

Ever wonder about resolutions, why we make them or break them, or how it all began?

 

How Did New Year’s Resolutions Come About?

 

Every New Year’s Eve, millions of people around the globe celebrate with the hope that next year will be better than the last. Are you planning yours?

A Finder survey (Finder.com) in 2021 revealed that 141.1 million adult Americans — or 55.31% of all American adults — think that following through on their New Year’s resolutions is well within the cards. However, some 25.98% of adult Americans were rolling into the new year without personal goals on their agenda.

Ever wonder about resolutions, why we make them or break them, or how it all began?

(I did some reading on the history of NY resolutions). The ancient Babylonians are said to have been the first people to make New Year’s resolutions some 4,000 years ago, though for them, the new year began in mid-March, when the crops were planted. During a massive 12-day religious festival known as Akitu, the Babylonians crowned a new king or reaffirmed their loyalty to the reigning king. 

They also made promises to the gods to pay their debts and return any objects they had borrowed. These promises could be considered the forerunners of our New Year’s resolutions. If the Babylonians kept to their word, their (pagan) gods would bestow favor on them for the coming year. If not, they would fall out of the gods’ favor—a place no one wanted to be.

A similar practice occurred in ancient Rome after the emperor Julius Caesar tinkered with the calendar and established January 1 as the beginning of the new year circa 46 B.C. Named for Janus, the two-faced god whose spirit inhabited doorways and arches, January had special significance for the Romans. Believing that Janus symbolically looked backward into the previous year and ahead into the future, the Romans would offer sacrifices to the deity and make promises of good conduct for the coming year.

New Year’s resolutions today are a mostly secular practice. Instead of making promises to the gods, most people make resolutions only to themselves and focus purely on self-improvement. Let’s take a closer look at our resolutions and what we are resolving to do.

 

Who’s Making Resolutions and What Are They About?

 

Of the responses in that survey, some 73.76% of men and 74.26% of women had planned to make a resolution.

Health-related resolutions are at the top of the list: 43.53% of guys and 47.45% of gals.

The least targeted resolution across the board still relates to a career, with a slightly higher percentage of those declarations coming from men. As for women, 40.00% lean toward self-improvement, and 32.34% plan to set a money-related goal.

Most Millennials (those born between 1981-1996)— 88.60% said they would make a New Year’s resolution that year. An even higher percentage of Gen Zers (1997-2002) planned to have a resolution at 91.85%. It was noticed, however, that the number of “resoluters” falls off as ages increase.

While Gen X (those born between 1965-1980), Baby Boomers (1946-1964), and The Silent Gen (1928-1945)  planned to focus their resolutions on health, more than half of all Millennials — an estimated 53.12% — were concentrating on money-related goals. Meanwhile, the Gen Zers focused on self-improvement.

 

Failure Creeps In, Even At Resolution

 

A certain percentage of Americans think they will fail their resolution.

If you’ve ever been to a gym in the first week of January, you’ve witnessed the great migration of “resoluters.” You have probably also seen that crowd thin by mid-February. We stop talking about our commitments (lest someone inquire). 

Here, generation seems to have little to do with preparing to fail. None of the generations are writing resolutions off completely, but most are hesitant to say that they won’t reach their goal. Only 7- 15% say they won’t hit the mark next year.

The excuses they offer do differ.

 

Gender or Generational Differences (When We Fail)

 

Besides the 46.81% of men and 52.58% of women with resolutions who think they’re lacking the willpower, there’s a good chunk who claim they might be forgetful in the new year — how convenient. To home in, 8.51% of men and 11.34% of women with resolutions say they will probably lose track and forget about their resolution.

While women are more inclined to admit to not having willpower, men are more ready to blame a failed resolution on being lazy. 

Every generation queried in this study said if they fold on their resolutions, lack of self-control is to blame. The resolution roadblock that’s runner up was the possibility of it slipping their mind.

 

I Still Want To Make Resolutions

 

What We Can Do

 

If you have a resolution rattling around in your head or your heart that wants to be declared an intention formally, then a New Year’s resolution may be in your future.

Should there be reticence or misgivings, perhaps hearing a couple of mine will jumpstart your efforts. You will also be helping me by making me more accountable: I am declaring to you, and publicly, so hold me accountable, will you?

I have two focuses for 2024:

1. Work on my Microboard
A MicroBoard is a term used to describe a compilation of persons who can help get me the support I need going forward. In my case, it is an aim to age well. I find and “select” my Board (making me the Chairperson. I appoint, and I can replace also).

Because I am a Solo Ager (persons who, by choice or circumstance, are aging alone and without the support of a built-in family), I need to develop relationships with persons I can then trust to be part of my MicroBoard.  

Because I am still relatively new to the area where I live, I am plugging into healthcare and resources, finding a faith community, and actively working to meet new people.

Because – and I truly believe this – because I have set these intentions, they are already occurring.

This week I attended a documentary hosted by a regional nature conservancy. They had sold out a local cinema for the screening event. I knew no one, and so I selected an aisle seat (so as to meet the folks that would have to pass me to be seated, and I could say hello. Strategic, huh?). It worked.

A group began to file past me, with some of them deciding to return to the lobby first before being seated. One of the women remaining began to chat about how we’d all found out about the event. It gave me time to say, “I am rather new to Greenville and to SC.” When the rest of her party returned (Excuse me, excuse me, Hello, come on by), the woman mentioned to her group my being a newcomer. She directed the couple seated next to me to tell me how they’d made their way as newcomers just two years prior. That couple told me of a Newcomers Club, one that I’d not known about, and how to find more volunteering opportunities on the city’s website. Score!

2. Work on Joy
Boy, looking back from within the 2022 – 2023 doorway, I have to say I was dangerously close to losing my mojo and maybe my wits. Much of 2023 has been about restructuring my life and myself (myself) after closing my patient advocacy agency of ten years (my identity, certainly a stressor, and my income as I knew it to be, gulp).

Then there was a move to a city where I knew no one (yes, I had done my due diligence in selection). A loved one’s chronic condition exacerbated like I’d never seen, and so there was caregiving underway, and I myself was being worked up for surgery that was to take place in early 2023. (Hey, why have one Life Event when you can have several?). If any Solos reading this want to work on any goals like that, please book a complimentary consultation. I am on the other side!

Because of all that, I had let joy slide way down the priority list. It had been slipping for a few years, really. It is time to get back my personal joy, and I know how to begin: It starts with a phrase I heard in a workshop, one of those lightbulb –“That’s it!” – moments.

The phrase I heard was in the form of advice. The advice was to find balance by “consciously under-committing my time.”  I likely “heard it” because I needed to do it. The advice went on to instruct me to be sure to build in time to find pleasure, have experiences (like my recent and successful motoring around the mountains during what was a spectacular fall season, visiting old friends, some up in years, and also answering the tug to go see them which did us all a world of good). Being open to new experiences, and they are coming, because now I have that intention to be present, and to receive them.

I hold a firm belief that the bigger world that I seek and will maintain is out there, available to me and to you.

 

Guidelines For Resolution-making

As we head toward 2024, here are my thoughts on how we all might better entertain, declare, and begin to realize our way to achieving our goals in the coming year.

• Not biting off more than we can accomplish – aka setting realistic expectations. That workshop phrase I heard? One of those “That’s it!” moments? I am hereby declaring “Consciously under-commit your time” to be my mantra for 2024.
• Take some advice, especially if it resonates with you – By that, I mean if you are feeling the tug to take action, then do so.  Have you ever heard someone say, or perhaps you have read something that leaped off the page at you that elicits the reaction of “Yikes, that is me!” or “Ow, ya got me”…). 
• Create your own accountability – First, declare your resolution to someone. Put it out there. If you can self-motivate and self-police, good for you. On second thought, you may benefit from an “Accountability Buddy,” someone who may help you persevere (to cheerlead or even call you out). Whatever works. Set yourself up for success.

2024 is days away. Perhaps, like the god Janus, we can look backward into the previous year and forward into the next. There may be sacrifices to make and promises of good conduct, just as they were made back in 46 B.C.

And this is not lost on me for rumination: 

Resolution
Re-solution (implies ‘solution).
Resolve
Re-solve
Resolve!

Here’s To a Happy and Prosperous New Year!

Nancy Ruffner is a consulting Patient Advocate, educator and speaker who consults with clients regarding advocacy, healthcare navigation, eldercare matters and successful aging. Set your Complimentary Consultation toward engagement today – 919.628.4428 nancyruffner.com