The coming of a new year always inspires people to reflect on their lives and set goals to improve themselves. This annual ritual, known as making New Year’s resolutions, has become a tradition around the world. These goals reflect a universal desire to turn over a new leaf, yet their execution often proves more challenging than anticipated.
Throughout the year, people struggle to keep their resolutions, most of these being dropped a few months after. Recent studies have shown that New Year’s resolutions have a high failure rate. Research studies estimate that only nine percent of people successfully keep their resolutions for an entire year. The reasons for the failure are unrealistic goals, lack of planning, impatience, and external pressures, such as the demands of daily life.
The most common themes in New Year’s resolutions are on health and financial well-being.
A survey by Drive Research found that 79 percent of New Year’s goals involve improving health, including exercising more, eating healthier, and losing weight. A 2024 survey by a U.S. organization found that the top resolution among 23 percent of the respondents – which is also a universal theme in resolutions – is to save more money. Another resolution related to financial health is to pay off debts.
Other health-related resolutions often include improving sleep habits and managing stress by adopting stress-reduction techniques such as meditation, yoga, or mindfulness practices. Other surveys include resolutions on personal development (learning new skills), working on relationships (spending more time with family), and breaking bad habits (quitting smoking or cutting back on alcohol) as popular themes.
The practice of making resolutions dates back over 4,000 years to ancient Babylon during a New Year festival where people would make promises to their gods in hopes of earning divine favor. In ancient Rome, Julius Caesar established Jan. 1 as the start of the year, naming the month after Janus, the two-faced god symbolizing the past and the future. Romans offered sacrifices to Janus and vowed to improve their lives.
Centuries later, early Christians adopted the tradition, using New Year’s Day to reflect on past mistakes and resolve to live better lives in the future. Today, this practice has evolved into a secular, global phenomenon, with millions crafting resolutions aimed at personal growth and fulfillment.
To improve oneself for a better life has been on the minds of people around the world and through the ages. And New Year’s resolutions – even if these are not kept until the end of the year –show that we are challenged by the same hope.
Guided by our past years’ resolutions on the common themes, many of us will again take time to make promises for new behavior in the new year. Today is Sunday, a good day to do that.
As we reflect on our resolutions for 2025, may we be guided by gratefulness to list goals that we can achieve, and most of all, that will also benefit the people we live and work with. Include in your list doing acts of kindness and taking a 30-minute walk – at least twice a week.