New Year’s Resolutions…a few thoughts.

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https://www.history.com/news/the-history-of-new-years-resolutions

At the beginning of each year, people often make what is called New Year’s Resolutions.  Often, it is “I want to lose weight”.  This sentiment is often brought on from overeating during the holidays.  Many of us strive to be better people each year and this tends to reflect that idea.  Unfortunately, our resolutions usually don’t go very far.  If you talk to young people today for very long, you will eventually hear the word “meme”.  If there ever was a meme before there were memes, it was the concept of not following through on a New Year’s Resolution.

Oddly enough, New Year’s resolutions actually have a history.  If you do a search for the history of resolutions on the internet, you will find several referencing similar things.  I have provided a link below to one such article. I will briefly cover the contents here.

Ancient Babylon

According to the article, the tradition was technically started in ancient Babylon. The Babylonians would have a “12 day religious festival known as Akitu” where they “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.”  Much of the idea behind this was to bring down good blessings and good vibes from the gods to help their crops grow well that year.  Many of us in today’s culture would describe this as “good intentions misplaced.” 

The Romans and Julius Caesar

Next in this interesting saga, enter the Romans and Julius Caesar.  Caesar decided to make a big deal out of this and actually encourage people to make resolutions.  This was in honor of the Roman god Janus.  He is said to be the god of the doorways.  Hence, he can “look backwards and forwards”.  Thus, encouraging the people to look back over the year and towards the new year.  I believe this may be where we get the name for the month of January.  I also am inclined to think Caesar is why we reference the “Julian calendar”.

John Wesley

Apparently, Christians wanted to get in on the tradition, too.  So, John Wesley of the methodist tradition decided to adopt the manner that we recognize today.  He encouraged Christians to make plans to be better people that year.

Goals….not resolutions

For me, I would like to resolve to be a better person this year than I was last year.  Granted, that can take many forms.  My pastor recently spoke on this particular issue and he mentioned something that I have heard and done before (even on my blog)…setting goals. There are multiple ways you can set goals and multiple resources to find about setting goals.  During my coaching class, we spoke about setting goals.  Our culture is inundated with the idea of acronyms.  As such, there is an acronym to help you set goals.  It is called the SMART method.  Make your goals Specific.  Make your goals Measurable.  Make your goals Achievable.  Make your goals Relevant.  Make your goal Time-bound (https://www.playworks.ph/img/upload/smart-puzzle-2.jpg.)  If we can do this, our efforts may be more attainable.  God Bless, and have a happy new year!

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