do they work? Psychology of New Year's Resolutions

Whenever a new year is about to come, there is a flood of resolutions in the air. Now we are again getting ready to welcome 2025 with new resolutions, only to break them soon. Aren't New Year's resolutions like dewdrops on blades of grass; Is it destined to fade away on the first day of the New Year? They definitely are. New Year's resolutions are like the wild promises of a lover or the vague assurances of a politician. Both are never complete. They are like eggs, so they break easily.

Yet, many of us make big resolutions to leave them behind like we did last year. Why do we fail to follow them? We fail because we often take impractical and strange resolutions and are never serious about implementing them in our lives. If you want to get rid of a bad habit, why should you wait for next year to get rid of it? The moment you feel it is no good, leave it. tomorrow Never Comes. Kal kare so aaj kar, aaj kare so ab (Whatever has to be done tomorrow, do it today and whatever has to be done today, has to be completed now).

A renowned psychologist wrote, “It is the delay in implementation that causes New Year's resolutions to remain unfulfilled.” We don't make New Year's resolutions because we want to take a new turn in the new year, we make them because we know they're worthless. American humorist H.L. Mencken cleverly defined “resolution.” He wrote, “A resolution is nothing else than the repetition of a so-called solution: re-resolution.” This is definitely the same thing or 'solution' that is repeated every year and forgotten by the end of the first week of January.

A New Year's resolution is to recycle equality. It is a ritualistic resolution lasting about a month not to repeat the same monotony and breaking it with a whisper. It is a repetition that we are all familiar with and it is simply old wine in a new bottle. We look for an excuse to continue an undesirable trait or practice in the new year. Furthermore, the new year is merely an increase in numbers, a mere digital change (as Carl Sagan has said). This is a change in the calendar and man's limited attempt to measure the eternity of time. And that's all. Isn't every new day as big an event as the New Year?

Well, back to New Year's resolutions. First in the Greek Orthodox Church in 34 AD, a resolution was passed that lay followers would take a solemn oath in the last month of the year to be more regular in their religious duties in the coming year. This was seen as a kind of 'undeserved generosity' on the part of the early church, a belated way of improving methods over time. Despite their strong resolutions in the ending year, very few people followed their religious duties in the new year.

People have forgotten the origin, but the carelessness in approach and intention remains. The Protestants of England, under the auspices of the Archbishop of Canterbury, would determine that drinking would take place solely under canonical conditions, and not under social circumstances (refer to Ron Manley's out of print, 'Church and Resolutions in Medieval Europe', Bantam Books 1980). Churchgoers rarely followed rules and their resolutions to abstain from alcohol in social settings. Ironically, this canonical position was ignored on New Year's Eve itself, when revelers would drink like fish to welcome the New Year! We somehow manage to deceive ourselves because it is the easiest thing to do. Didn't Benjamin Disraeli rightly ask, “Who has deceived you as often as you have deceived yourself?” So, we make resolutions and put them aside just like last year's almanac is shelved and forgotten forever.

Another thing that plays an important role in the whole cycle of resolution making and breaking is our excessive pomp and elaborate planning. It's like, “I destroy my home with my intentions.” (I plan things in advance and destroy them / Just like I build a house and demolish it). What starts with a bang often ends with a whimper. Things done in haste are never good. Elaborate preparations take away the essence and excitement. Therefore, do not make big resolutions long before their implementation. The whole process should be fun and effortless; Never serious or heavy. So, what is your resolution for the upcoming 2025?

Sumit Paul is a regular contributor to the world's leading publications and portals in multiple languages