New Year vs. new year

The life and times of a new year’s resolution

When we think of the New Year, we often see a new dawn for transformation and fulfillment. We bombard ourselves with promises of hitting up the gym, managing money better, or perhaps even limiting our Netflix binging to an hour or two a day. Depending on who you are, these promises may seem artificial. Why start in January? The distinction of starting something new on one day that you could have started the day before seems silly. We rarely discuss the historic and religious significance of a new year and the promises made annually that mark the change of a season. At the start of each year, ancient Babylonians made promises to their gods to pay their debts and return borrowed objects. Knights in medieval Europe would reaffirm their commitments through a “peacock vow” at the end of every Christmas season. No matter how futile these promises may seem, they are entrenched in human cultures and are unlikely to fade away anytime soon. As prominent as they are, New Year’s resolutions can lead to both benefits and mistakes. 

The problem with making resolutions lies in their unrealistic goals. What do we want? Perfection. In imagining a utopia, we reach too far away from ourselves instead of attempting to project the possible. We think of the end and not the means. We idealize an infallible self without considering the time, energy, and effort involved in creating that self or achieving that resolution. We treat this “end” as a final point, after which we stop our pursuit. People forget that much of what they hope to change or take a chance on in the new year requires a constant, and perhaps lifelong, commitment. The result is ultimately disappointment.  

Yet the boon of making resolutions is evident in its power to shape a rare period of positivity. By the end of the year, we are often weighed down by all that went wrong and all that was lost in the past year; even if it is only a symbolic refuge, the New Year is a period of renewal. In beginning something new that has come before, we are reminded of the renewing energy of life itself. We are struck by the thought, the feeling, that even though the past didn’t work out, we always have the opportunity to begin again. We long for an ending in order to enter something new. This renewal—a coming again of positive energy—gives us the strength we had previously felt was draining away.   

In a way, we can make these changes at any point in our lives. But no matter the day or year, changes are marked by a significant realization or event that triggers our commitment to the effort. When we are immersed in the monotony of our daily lives, we neglect the introspection required to grow and change ourselves for the better. Instead, we section off specific days and celebrations to bring us moments of reflection, like birthdays. However, a new year commemorates something that is universally binding for those who follow the Gregorian calendar. Around the world, we wait for the clock to strike 12 in our time zone and for the New Year to begin. In that, it’s impossible not to think of where we belong and see ourselves in a way that is beyond the everyday.  

New Year’s resolutions don’t always work out, but in making them we can project a confidence and enthusiasm about life that we often forgo in favour of old habits. Maybe a New Year is just a season to mark a new year, but culturally and historically this newness has been significant in leaving the past behind and moving on to something bigger and brighter.