The New Year’s resolution is an ancient practice dating back to the Babylonian empire, when farmers would “resolve” themselves to the gods in hopes of receiving a good yearly harvest, according to the Sunday Times. This tradition carried on throughout history, evolving into a goal not to serve another, but to serve oneself.
Some of the most popular resolutions focus on diet, exercise, money, love, habits, and other aspects of life that can be endlessly improved on. However, these resolutions, more often than not, don’t work! So much so, that approximately two weeks after New Year’s Day, a different holiday is celebrated, Ditch New Year’s Resolutions Day.
On this occasion, whether consciously or not, most people begin to abandon their sought after goals, finding that they don’t have enough time, money, or simply willpower to hold themselves to these oftentimes lofty ambitions.
This abandonment can be harmful to the resolution-maker in many ways, economically it may render any money put into the goal, such as memberships, useless, and psychologically it may create a sense of low self-esteem about an unexpected failure. It seems that, for an everyday person looking to improve themselves, New Year’s resolutions might not be the way to go, but many won’t let this habit die.
Like many other holidays, New Year’s has become a somewhat capitalistic tradition, putting money into the pockets of corporations looking to score off of the goals set in the new year. Gyms, for example, gain the majority of their members in January, according to U.S. News.
More than 12% of all sign ups take place this month compared to the monthly average of 8.3%, giving gyms ample motivation to keep pushing resolutions. To achieve this, many gyms ramp up advertising and offer sales near the new year, encouraging people to commit themselves to a year’s worth of exercise.
In fact, the famous New York City “ball drop” is sponsored by Planet Fitness, who encourages people to “fuel [their] fitness journey” in the new year, along with countless other companies, offering discounts or specials to convince people to use their products to improve themselves.
Beyond the corporate push for resolutions, the social expectation to improve can be harmful, particularly for women. Not only do women feel increased pressure to set resolutions, according to YouGov, they also tend to adopt more appearance based goals, specifically weight.
In a world where “diet culture” is already so prevalent, a new year sees many join diet programs or medical regiments to reach weight goals they’ve set for the year. These goals can quickly become dangerous, with 20-25% eventually developing eating disorders, according to the University of Michigan.
Not everyone suffers negative results from their New Year’s resolutions, however. Many would argue that losing weight or hitting the gym is a healthy thing, and with discipline, sticking to a goal is entirely doable. The logic behind this argument is valid, a driven, dedicated person with realistic, healthy goals should absolutely set goals for themselves!
The issue is that with the widespread adoption of resolutions, the majority of people don’t reap the benefits and may end up worse off than where they started, resolving themselves to an unachievable goal on New Year’s Eve.
