“I’m quitting smoking”; “This year, I’ll go to the gym every day!”; “I’m going to lose those 10 kilos”… What do these phrases inspire in you? Indeed, the famous “good resolutions”. But before we dive deeper into why we make these resolutions at the start of the year, which we often don’t keep… Welcome to 2024, Happy New Year, and especially Happy New Year’s resolutions. 

On December 31st, it’s New Year’s Eve, there is plenty of food, everyone’s doing their best moves on the dance floor, and at midnight everyone’s in chorus: “HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!”. And in the morning, waking up with a hangover, realising that it is January 1st, we ask ourselves: what our resolutions for this new year are going to be?

Resolution comes from the Latin resolutio, meaning the action of undoing, of resolving. In the 13th century, the meaning of the word was “disintegration, deconstruction”, which later became “resurrection”. Two centuries later, resolution was understood as a decision, a definition we still use today. The tradition of making resolutions at the start of the year goes back to antiquity. In 2000 BC, the Babylonians celebrated the beginning of the agricultural season for 11 days at the spring equinox, symbolising the start of a new year. The population made promises to the deities, paid their debts, returned farming tools to their neighbours, and established what they had done to start afresh as “better people”. 

The Romans continued the tradition of resolutions, this time based on the Julian calendar which, in 46 BC, decided that January 1st would be the start of the year. January owes its name to the god Janus, to whom people make promises and offerings. He is the god of passage, doors, beginnings, and transitions, both physically and metaphorically. People worshipped him to guarantee a better year. The Christian Church later put an end to this tradition, which was considered pagan. Almost two millennia later, in the 19th century, priests were preaching to their parishioners to be good Christians at the start of the year.

Today, the new year is still seen as a transition, the last stage from the previous year, and first of the next one. Resolutions are like the embodiment of this change, present as if to improve the person’s daily life in this new year. Resolutions must be linked to joy. We decide to improve some aspect of our lives, but for it to work, it must not be a constraint. If the resolution ends up being a constraint, our brain won’t assimilate it, and we won’t stick to it.

Many researchers in the human and social sciences, as well as in neuroscience, have examined the phenomenon of resolutions in personal development and drawn conclusions. They first noticed that the most important thing when making resolutions was to base them on something you’d lost and would like to get back. For example, you’ve stopped painting, or going for a walk, so you’re just going to say to yourself, “I’d like to start again”. Furthermore, research shows that resolutions put in place for someone else’s good, not just our own, are more easily accomplished. But as all psychologists explain, if you want your resolutions to apply to your daily life for the long term, they must be realistic. Why not set yourself big challenges, if they’re stimulating for you? But don’t feel obliged to outdo yourself by comparing yourself to your sister or brother. So, simple, positive resolutions, allowing yourself exceptions, like not carrying it out if you have other plans, are I think a healthy way to be able to do them. Last tip: for extra motivation, make your resolutions public, but choose your audience carefully. If you don’t want your mother to come to reproach you for not going to your sports session on Thursday, then don’t tell her at all! 

Resolutions are there to spur us on to change and stimulate your daily life with small changes. Creating a plan to follow them and incorporating them into your daily habits are two ways of ensuring that you’ll keep them for as long as possible. 

Resolutions are meant to start the New Year on a new note, to look into the future. It is, in my opinion, a healthy way of seeing life in a positive and optimistic sense. But our past is there to help us avoid repeating the same mistakes: looking at it from time to time can be a help, and a synonym of wisdom. 

Chloé Le Cair 

Sources: 

• Rtbf.be – Bonnes résolutions : la science vous donne 6 astuces pour les tenir
• Bulletin des médecins suisses – Bonnes résolutions du Nouvel An : que sont-elles devenues ?
• Historia.fr – Les bonnes résolutions, entre traditions et modernité