Halfway Jan 2024 Version 2

History
The History of New Year Resolutions
It’s that time of the year again – so we take a look at the histor of New Year’s Resolutions
On the 1 st of January, many of us will be making New
Year’s resoluons as we do every year. But did you
know the very first New Year’s resoluons date back
to over 4,000 years ago. The first recorded people to
celebrate a New Year were the ancient Babylonians.
second Friday in January – less than two weeks into
the year and which is known as Quiers’ Day.
Their New Year celebraon was a twelve day fesval
called Akitu which began at the start of the spring
planng season in March. During their celebraons,
Babylonians would make resoluons to their gods and
if they kept their word their gods would grant them a
favour or luck in the coming year, and they would also
pledge their loyalty to the King and make promises to
pay their debts and return borrowed items to their
righul owners.
It’s believed that the New Year offers a blank slate –
an opportunity to get things right. When we set New
Year’s resoluons, we are ulising a very important
concept called self-efficacy, which means that by
aspiring to a goal and following it through we have a
sense of control of what is happening in our life.
Figures show that about 30% of people don’t bother
to make a New Year’s resoluon because they know
they won’t keep to it. And, of course modern
resoluons are very different and exercising more,
healthier eang and losing weight were the three
most popular New Year’s resoluons in 2023.
But how successful are we at keeping our New Year’s
resoluons ?
While some people love the tradion of seng a goal
each January 1 st , others argue it’s a waste of me
since most resoluons fail by mid-March.
About 23% of people don’t even make it through the
first week, and most people toss in the towel by the
And why aren't we more successful at keeping our
New Year's resoluons ?
It’s suggested that we may be thinking too big, we're
not considering the 'why' behind them, and the fact
that we may not be ready for change.
Research shows that 46% of people do keep
resoluons for at least six month, and 8% keep them
for the enre year. That 8% might seem small, but
people who choose to make a New Year's resoluon
are 10 mes as likely to keep them over those who
pursue improvement in another way.
However, according to a survey, an esmated 2 in 3
people in the U.K. (66%) will be seng themselves
New Year's resoluons in 2024. That's 35 million
people taking deliberate steps to beer themselves as
the year kicks off.
So if you are making your own New Year’s resoluons
for 2024, whatever they are, will you be amongst the
8% or the 92% ?
Good luck !
Patricia Bone
28 Doorsteppa Magazines www.thedoorsteppa.com | 0114 418 5359