Resolved?

I'm a New Year's grinch.  I don't understand why we celebrate this non-event.  I mean, I get that there has to be a day when the year switches number, but it is so arbitrary that we changed it from April to January (making those who celebrated it on the old date April fools).  Other holidays celebrate something of religious significance, honor some aspect of culture, or commemorate an important event.

When I point out that we are celebrating nothing, it bothers some people.  One friend, who took particular offense, reminded me that it is the only holiday celebrated by everyone in the world.  That doesn't help me.  It just makes me question why we have collectively decided to celebrate nothing.  So, yeah, I'll be going to bed at a normal time and wake up to 2020 anyway.

Perhaps the part of this holiday I find most ridiculous is the practice of making resolutions.  I have a co-worker who regularly works out at a gym.  He hates going there in January because it is packed with all of the people who have resolved to work out, but he says that he knows it will be normal again in three weeks, so he just has to time his visits well until MLK weekend.  Every television morning show does a segment on how to keep your resolutions while acknowledging that you will make it to Valentine's Day at best.  Resolutions are lies we voluntarily tell ourselves, knowing they are lies when we tell them.



Why don't we keep resolutions?
- First, it is because we know we won't follow through when we make them.  We know, in spite of touting the nonsensical phrase, "New Year - New You," that we will congratulate ourselves for even kinda sorta keeping them for a few weeks.  We don't actually RESOLVE; we just make a list.
- Second, overcoming a habit or forming one is difficult and requires a the energy of a powerful motive, which a non-holiday is not.  You are not a different person on January 1st than you were on December 31st.  You know this during the rest of the year.  No one says, "Once July 13th gets here, I'll be different."  The fact that the number on the year part of the calendar changes doesn't inspire change.

If you identify something that needs changing and tell yourself that you will make that your New Year's resolution, you don't actually want to change.  If you identify something in your life that needs changing, that is the time to change it.  That's when there will be motivation and energy to do something.  That's when you might have RESOLVE.