The ancient Babylonians are said to have been the first people to make New Year’s resolutions, some 4,000 years ago. The history of New Year’s resolutions continued in ancient Rome. Emperor Julius Caesar introduced a new calendar in 46 B.C. which declared 1 January as the start of the new year. This new date honoured Janus, a two-faced god who symbolically looked back into the previous year and forwards into the new year. The Romans would offer sacrifices to Janus and make promises of good behaviour for the year ahead.
Modern New Year’s resolutions are a largely secular practice, with most people making resolutions to themselves rather than promising gods. The focus of the tradition is on self-improvement, with people taking time to reflect on their goals. Today’s resolutions are often health focused, driven by the indulgence of the Christmas period. The symbology of the New Year also makes it a great time to wipe the slate clean and start fresh after 31 December.
We asked a few of the Gen Z and millennials all about their resolutions for 2022 to find out what’s on their minds, and their goals for the much-anticipated new year.
My New Year’s resolution is to be a person who would go out of their way to make another human being happy: Content Creator Eshi Dias
“2022 is a brand new chapter for me and this coming year I made a promise to myself to be the best version of myself I could be. I’m grateful for the past year that I spent, all the memories I made, and all the new friends I met. In 2022 I want to learn from my past mistakes, grow to be a better person, create quality content, and be kind to everyone whenever I get the chance to,” Eshi Dias shared with us, speaking about what she hopes to accomplish next year and what her New Year resolutions are.
Dias further added: “The past year has taught me about empathy and how everyone has their own battles to fight. My New Year’s resolution is to be a person who would go out of their way to make another human being happy, because that’s the least we could do to one another as human beings.”
She also mentioned that as a millennial she has realised how their generation tends to forget to be grateful for everything they have. “We need to stop being overworked, stop worrying about how much we have to do, and stop and pause for a moment, look around us, and be grateful for all that we’ve achieved and all that we have. With this new year starts my new chapter, and I promise to celebrate every little moment of this chapter of my life,” she said.
Welcoming the new year may feel a bit different this year, given the challenges of the past two years. For many people, the yearly date change puts a greater focus on long-term goals than busy lives usually allow. For many, this leads to the tradition of New Year’s resolutions; a chance to consider our progress in becoming the “ideal self” that many people hope to achieve by the end of their days, even with the knowledge that these resolutions will soon be forgotten by mid-January.
In the context of both 2020 and 2021, New Year’s resolutions feel silly: Psychology Undergraduate Sarinu Silva
“The problem with most resolutions such as vowing to lose weight or be ‘more productive’ is they’re usually formulated as a task that whispers to us that we’re not good enough as we are, that we need to strive to be better. There’s no pleasurable sense of growth in this journey, only a mandate to fix ourselves. They make us feel ‘less’ without delivering us any useful insight into what we’ve learned, what our strengths are, or what could make our lives feel more meaningful.
“Maybe in a normal year that would be fine, and making a resolution to accomplish something shallow would feel like another piece of holiday frippery like eggnog, or a secret Santa gift. Right now, for me, at least, anything that isn’t doing something actively positive for my wellbeing needs to just leave me alone. And I believe that I’m not alone in this. In the context of both 2020 and 2021, New Year’s resolutions feel silly. Those ‘I’m going to lose weight this year’ or ‘I’m going to exercise more, I’m going to eat healthy, I’m going to learn to play the piano’ goals seem silly in the sense that you don’t know what life is going throw at you or society is going to throw at you,” Silva expressed.
“Setting goals and making room for reflection can positively shape our lives, but resolutions as we’ve largely practiced them have been far more about poking at our perceived shortcomings than building our lives in a shape that feels actively good. But this is not the time for laundry lists of ways to perfect ourselves or even really a moment of deep ambition. As we survive the final weeks of 2021, it’s time to drink the fancy wine we’ve been saving for the ‘right’ moment and to appreciate everything we already have,” Silva reasoned.
When the new year rolls around, it’s typical for adults to set fresh goals for the 12 months ahead, but what about kids? Don’t leave them out. Children may not be able to stay up until midnight to ring in the new year, but it’s a good idea for them to partake in goal-setting at the beginning of the year too. Making New Year’s resolutions together is a fun, bonding activity that you can do as a family and goal-setting gives children and teens a sense of responsibility and purpose.
So, 2020 and 2021 have been a strange mix of disappointments and new discoveries. And as the year comes to an end, 2022 should be regarded as an opportunity to figure out how to use what we have learned during the past two years to impact our lives in meaningful ways, for next year and beyond.
