New Year's Resolutions: Sounds all too familiar

As it's been said, we are creatures of habit. If our traditions were being cased by a burglar, we'd be caught simply by the patterns we follow year after year. The dreaded and sometimes celebrated tradition of New Year's Resolution is upon us again. This moment in time has prepared us to become better people than we were last year with a list of goals and aspirations we hope to accomplish by a definitive date. Weeks before the new year we think and gravel over all the things we should have done or could have done, and we vow that the new year will be better.

We create a physical listing of all the things we're going to work on or towards. Some way, every year, that list is pushed to the side and forgotten. Every year. Then the cycle starts over again at the end of the current year to do better for the upcoming year. I have long given up on this insanity, but I wanted to research the origin of the word resolution.

I wanted to understand how we got here and why New Year's Resolutions are so defining in today's culture. I started with the etymology of resolution which is the process of reducing things into simpler forms. This root sounds very familiar, something we use often, and I realized a resolution is nothing more than S.M.A.R.T goals! You know specific, measurable, relevant, and timely. I don't remember hearing this tradition broken down in this manner.

Now, I hear it regularly at work or in business goal setting, but never as a way to bring in the new year. Today's New Year Resolution is all about becoming better in the new year than we were in the last.  It's very generalized and doesn't go into detail of the 5 W's. This tradition is setting yourself up for failure before the ball even drops! I went a little farther because I wanted to know more about how it was practiced in history.

Did we just change it over time, or has it always been this way? I went over to www.history.com where I found out resolutions have been around for over 4,000 years, but they celebrated it VERY differently. First, it was a 12-day festival that they called Akitu (I assume the name was too much, so we changed it to the Ball Drop instead) where they celebrated the King. Whether they were newly appointed or a returning one, they celebrated his arrival.

They also reserved this tradition to make promises to pagan gods they served. They believed that they needed these gods to find favor with them in order to repay debts and return objects they had borrowed. It was clear to them that if they followed their gods' rules that they would have a prosperous year, but if they did not, well, no one wanted to be in that position to find out. Later on, some churches decided to adopt their over version of this which they called watch night services where they spend time worshipping and making resolutions until midnight.

What if we, like Western Culture, took bits and pieces out of each of their traditions and created our own that is effective and useful for growing us as humans and building up our character instead of tear it down? I can certainly see how creating S.M.A.R.T goals is a better use of my time to really think about my dreams and goals. I can also see how I can take those 12 days to flush out ideas until I come up with solutions that won't fail because I have an actual plan and strategy to follow.

 What about you? Has this ever crossed your mind or is this the first time hearing the word resolution broken down in a different way?