Each year around this time, we all start to think about our New Year's resolutions. We ask ourselves what life-changing resolution are we going to come up with to start out a new year? Some people turn to the healthy options: working out more often or eating healthier foods. Others focus on their work life and attempt to be positive when they come into work every day. No matter the resolution, what tends to happen is that we decide on one or more resolutions. We get through most of January until we realize we haven't been doing a good job, immediately making us feel like failures. Then the cycle repeats in December.
Here's some food for thought, according to Forbes only 8% of New Year's resolutions are actually kept. Now I have the utmost respect for those who make and keep their resolutions, but I'd rather highlight the other 92% of us who make a resolution and fail to keep it.
It is okay. Let me say it once again, it is okay. I don't want to make some cliché remark here but let's be honest with ourselves. Failure is an inevitable part of life and we shouldn't be so hard on ourselves when it comes to these resolutions. Something a friend once told me has stuck with me, "It's okay if you cannot consistently keep your New Year's resolution. You can always come back to it and try, try again until midnight on December 31st." See, I think as a culture, we are designed to think that just because we failed to keep up with something it means we have failed overall.
Nothing could be further from the truth my Odyssey readers.
If one looks at the origins of these New Year's resolutions, there is something to be learned from this historical information. According to the History Channel, "The ancient Babylonians are said to have been the first people to make New Year’s resolutions, some 4,000 years ago. . . 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." Thus began the cycle of New Year's resolutions from which we can assess that the Babylonians were doing it out of a loyalty to the new or current king.
We, in the present day, tend to do it for ourselves.
So, here's a thought as you head in to the new year. What resolution can you make that can benefit others? Why not consider a resolution that doesn't directly involve your health or a positive mindset, but rather a resolution that, similar to the Babylonians, makes a promise to someone in your life? Now we do not have to take the exact tradition of the Babylonians by any means, but I think there is something to be said for their resolutions.
It may not be easy and you may have to come back to it over and over again, but it is okay. As the great Winston Churchill once said, "Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” No matter what, you must have the courage to continue.
Happy New Year and best of luck on your resolutions! Tell me some of your resolutions in the comments below.
