National Resolution Planning Day is on December 30 and we are getting a head start on setting goals for next year!
Did you know that one in three people fail their New Year’s resolutions in the first month? And only 10% of people are successful at keeping their resolutions throughout the year?
While there are many reasons for this, it is necessary that you set- and commit to your resolutions before the new year actually begins for a better chance at success.
But how did the start of a new year become the de facto ‘fresh start’?
It is better to start thinking of your resolutions ahead of time rather than wait for January 1 to come around, as by then it is probably already too late to decide on them.
If you plan your resolutions on December 30 then you’ll be good to go when the New Year arrives.
The ancient tradition of making resolutions for the new year started at the Babylonian festival of Akitu over 4,000 years ago. Spanning 12 days, the ‘rebirth of the natural world’ would be celebrated by the Babylonians.
A new king would be crowned, crops would be planted, and promises would be made to the gods. They believed that if these promises or resolutions were kept and fulfilled, the gods would be happy instead of vengeful.
In 153 B.C., to honor the god Janus, January 1 was declared as the start of the new year by the Roman Senate. Janus was an entity with two faces who had the ability to look backward and forward in time — this symbolized the end of one year and the beginning of another.
But it wasn’t until 100 years later, in 46 B.C., that the concept of the new year being on January 1 was made official and effective by Julius Caesar. Just like the Babylonians, the Romans would pledge promises to their god Janus about their behavior for the coming year.
During the Middle Ages, the ‘Peacock Vow’ would be renewed at the end of each year. Essentially, these were resolutions that knights committed to in order to uphold the code of knighthood.
Knights would place their hands on a cooked peacock and renew their oaths to protecting honor and chivalry.
The phrase ‘new year resolution’ appeared for the first time in a Boston newspaper in 1813, and from there onwards, modern resolutions became a thing.
