You aren't special. The reality is that you'll abandon your New Year's resolutions. By this point — just two weeks into 2025 — 88 percent of us have already given up on them.
But that's probably okay.
Maybe you remember the whimsical carelessness of being a little kid; back when nothing mattered but immediate happiness and what the plan was for dinner. Maturity brought social awareness, personal responsibilities and new experiences, and it seems we've grown a bit more rigid since its onset.
Ultimately, whether ignorance is bliss or knowledge is power doesn't matter. We need to be reasonable with ourselves and accept that failure is inevitable when we set overly-ambitious resolutions. But I reckon the real problem is that we've lost sight of what a resolution is truly meant to be.
The word “resolution” comes from the Latin “resolutionem,” meaning “the process of reducing things into simpler forms.” Today, however, resolutions often do the opposite, adding complexity to our lives and setting us up for disappointment.
Interestingly, the modern practice of goal-setting is most closely tied to the Roman tradition of making promises to Janus, the two-faced god of beginnings, for whom January is named. But whereas Romans pledged attainable goals, like being good to others or renewing their oaths to the Republic, we frequently focus on lofty and self-centered aims — losing weight, making more money or learning to play the accordion.
Don't get me wrong. I’m a sucker for goals and the challenges they bring, but wouldn't it be nice to try for something that focuses on kindness, connection or contributing to something greater than ourselves? Instead of an excuse to add another item to our to-do lists, if we treated the New Year as an opportunity to simplify our day-to-day experience, we'd likely find more happiness.
There's a good chance my mom is having an “I told you so” moment reading this. She practically drilled this understanding of goals into my brain. My younger brother and I were raised on the writings of David Foster Wallace, and I vividly remember the afternoon she sat us down to watch a powerful commencement speech about the process of setting out to do something with one's life and making it happen.
The truth is, we can know exactly what to do and still not do it. When I say it's okay that the majority of us fail on our resolutions not even 4 percent into the New Year, it's because we're failing at things we don't really need. I think we all know the world needs more kindness; yet, we've become so used to chasing selfish desires over resolutions that could benefit everyone.
