We are into another New Year. The recorded history indicates that New Year’s resolutions have been heard around the world since the very initial days of the 19th century whilst historians claim that its beginning could perhaps run back to the late 17th century.
People have often shown their interest in making resolutions with the dawn of a New Year, they have also been noticed to have broken them with apologies over their unacceptable behaviour behind the New Year. Even today, the same is not a strange phenomenon.
While the originality about people start making pledges to themselves with the dawn of the New Year still slightly being ambiguous, there has been a tradition of making self-pledges to themselves with regard to that of their desire of reducing weight, planning migration, increasing savings, investing in businesses, exploring new career opportunities and so on.
I have got a recollection about “New Year’s Resolutions”- a poem, composed by Rudyard Kipling.
Kipling, an English novelist, poet, and journalist won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1907 for his great body of a work that included with “The Jungle Book” as well as that of a poem called “If”. As the New Year of 1887 was on the horizon, “New Year’s Resolutions”- Kipling’s poem was published in the Civil and Military Gazette. The poem is distinguished as a survey that delves into the analysis of the inclination and impulse of the humans to make New Year’s resolutions.
However, towards the latter part of the 19th century and the very beginning of the 21st century, making New Year resolutions started to blossom considerably. A certain correspondent had written to the Walker’s Hibernian magazine or 
compendium of entertaining knowledge, published in Dublin, Ireland from 1771-1812 about making New Year Resolutions.Writing to The New York Times quite recently, Harry Guinness wrote, “And yet, I believe there are multitude of people, accustomed to receive injunctions of New Year resolution”.
An opportunity
Random surveys indicate that a considerable number of people treat a New Year as an opportunity that helps them to reflect on their lives; it also gives them a stimuli to think as to where they would land in the future.
As long as you avoid focusing on goals that are more or less unrealistic in nature or putting an enormous degree of stress and pressure on the goals that you are interested in achieving, making New Year resolutions would never make you disappointed. As per the statistics, declared by the “Forbes Health/Onepoll Survey”, some resolutions are more common than that of the other resolutions, preferred to be made annually.
Research highlights that maintaining a physically and mentally healthy lifestyle has since late been a major concern of many people and as pointed out by Forbes, improved mental health, improved fitness, improved diet, and loss of weight with 36%, 48%, 32% and 34% respectively are identified as main goals of the people, interviewed on the aspect of making resolutions for the New Year 2024.
On the other hand, travelling more, attending to regular meditation, having less alcohol as well as performing better at work are among the least popular resolutions, expected to be made in the New Year of 2024.
Despite, an individual’s interest in making resolutions may vary based on their whims and fancies, setting a New Year’s resolution is an incredibly common practice, notably in North America and Europe. Such practices may be a compelling beginning to prioritise your physical and mental well-being, which you should not take for granted.
The dawning of a new year offers you a blank slate, it is a wonderful opportunity given to you, provided that you are willing to get your things done correctly. It is also said that as you make New Year’s resolutions, you indirectly apply a rather significant concept that is popularly known as “Self- Efficacy”. As mentioned in numerous articles “Self- efficacy” refers to an individual’s belief in his or her capacity to execute behaviour necessary to produce specific performance attainments (Bandura, 1977, 1986, 1997).
While breaking up your resolutions into more achievable and obtainable steps, approaching with the goals is a remarkable way of revising your New Year resolutions. You can also consider changing your resolutions, if you find that what you initially prioritised has moved into a different dimension. Nothing remains unchanged and nor do your resolutions. Therefore, there is no pity and loss of face in switching up your goals.
Even if you find yourself falling off the wagon of making New Year resolutions within a very short period of time, you are not yet isolated and abandoned. Falling at New Year’s resolutions is not a strange phenomenon, and you are not the only soul on the planet who drops your plans halfway. Just falling in your resolutions does not make you pessimistic; you may have even heard of a number of dates that celebrate the failures of such calibre. As per some sources, they are known as “Ditch New Year’s Resolutions Day” that falls on January 17, and “Quitter’s Day” being highlighted on the second Friday in January.
