Rev. Ted Huffman

New Years Resolutions

I’m not a huge fan of New Year’s Resolutions. I guess that I have seen too many instances where they are undertaken in a somewhat less than serious manner. I believe in setting goals. I believe in making commitments. I just don’t see anything particularly meaningful about connecting the process with a particular day of the year. According to the Statistic Brain website about 45% of Americans usually make New Year’s Resolutions. Only 8% are successful in achieving their resolutions. The problem isn’t initial commitment, but keeping the commitment over time. About 75% keep their resolution for a week, but after that the commitments begin to fade. Less than half are keeping their resolution at six months and less than 10% by the end of a year. Making New Year’s Resolutions are not an effective way to make permanent life changes.

According to the USA.gov website, the most popular New Year’s Resolutions are these:
  • Drink Less Alcohol
    • Eat Healthy Food
    • Get a Better Education
    • Get a Better Job
    • Get Fit
    • Lose Weight
    • Manage Debt
    • Manage Stress
    • Quit Smoking
    • Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle
    • Save Money
    • Take a Trip
    • Volunteer to Help Others
They are all worthy goals. It seems to me that they could contribute to making people live lives that are happier and more meaningful. So I don’t want to encourage people to stop making New Year’s Resolutions. I just want to find and promote ways in which people can make more meaningful commitments. I’d like to see them succeed in their resolutions instead of expressing good intentions, but failing to make meaningful changes in their lives.

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The roots of New Year’s Resolutions don’t like in Christianity. In the early church they were seen as vestiges of Roman polytheism. Janus was the Roman god of beginnings. The month January gets its name from the god. Janus was also the god of gates and doors. In most depictions, Janus is pictured with two faces: one looking forward, the other looking back. Such a feature was probably handy in guarding gates and doors where the traffic goes both ways. Janus was believed to represent beginnings. People saw passing through a gate or a door as a symbolic action. It could represent a new beginning – the coming into a new place in one’s life. In ancient days, Janus was honored on the first day of each month. Temples around Rome were dedicated to Janus, the most well-known of which was the Ianus Geminus, a double-gated structure. The temple had one door facing the rising sun and another facing the setting sun. When the gates of the temple were closed, it meant that Rome was at peace. When the gates were open, it meant that Rome was at war. Between the reigns of Numa and Augustus, the gates were shut only once.

Temple_Janus_face
The Romans had a tradition of dedicating their intentions to change to the god Janus. They would make sacrifices to Janus. Such sacrifices could be offered at any temple, but were commonly offered in special temples dedicated to the god. It was believed that such a sacrifice was an expression of a deeper commitment and those who made such sacrifices were more likely to be able to make their changes permanent. It was traditional to offer sacrifices at the opening of new phases of life such as marriage and at the birth of a child.

New Year’s Resolutions are remnants of ancient traditions that have their roots in Roman religious practice. There is no corresponding god to Janus in Greek mythology, but some of the practices, such as offering a sacrifice to indicate a desire to change were inherited by the Romans from even more ancient religious traditions.

Some parts of the Christian church have made a practice of renewing covenants and commitments at the first of the New Year. It is common for congregations to read their covenants as a part of New Year’s celebrations.

With New Year’s approaching there will be plenty of people who are thinking about making resolutions. John Norcross, professor of psychology at the University of Scranton, has been studying how people change addictive behaviors for more than three decades. He has noted some things that enable success in keeping resolutions.
The first key to success is believing that it can be done. There is plenty of cynicism surrounding change. Those who genuinely believe that they can change are the most likely to succeed.

The second key is being realistic. Fantasy doesn’t make for a better life. Resolutions that can be kept are specific, realistic, and measurable. In his book, Norcross uses the acronym SMART, which comes from business: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time sensitive.

After believing and being realistic, keeping resolutions is all about hard work. You have to actually change your behavior. Perseverance over the long run means not giving up because you make a slip or get off track. You have to get back on track and go back to the desired behavior.

Community can be a big help in making change. That is why Alcoholics Anonymous and Weight Watchers work. People engage their peers in helping. A phone call from a friend can be a big support. Someone else who is making the same resolution can be a big help when it comes to keeping one on track. Talking about the resolution and how it is going can lead to changes in behavior.

I also believe that there is something important about timing. We can only handle so much change at one time. I really wanted to lose weight for our daughter’s wedding. I did not achieve that weight loss until a year later. The stresses of losing parents, changing our lifestyle and preparing for the wedding were all the changes I was able to absorb that year. My health took a back seat for a while and I struggled to survive all of the changes and stresses. The next year when things calmed down, I was more successful.

new-years-resolutions
So make those New Year’s Resolutions. But make it more than an idle process. Don’t adopt a long list. Choose one or two goals that are realistic and go to work to achieve them.

There is no need to make a sacrifice at a temple. But a little prayer doesn’t hurt.

Copyright © 2012 by Ted Huffman. I wrote this. If you want to copy it, please ask for permission. There is a contact me button at the bottom of this page. If you want to share my blog a friend, please direct your friend to my web site.