January 2, 2015

A Multicultural Solution to New Year’s Resolutions

It’s that time of year again. As the clock struck midnight, and we yawned goodbye to 2014, the pressure began. What New Year’s Resolutions to make? And will we manage to keep them?

If you’re still stuck for ideas, last year, the Daily Mirror published a Top 50 to choose from. One that might be a bit of a stretch for some of us comes in at number 13: “Get a toned body like Beyoncé”.  It’s hard to believe that this idea made it into the Top 20 unprompted !

Of course, you can follow the herd and resolve to “exercise more” (the most popular New Year’s Resolution yet again). But do bear in mind that: whatever resolution you make, the older you are, the less likely you are to keep it. According to University of Scranton’s Journal of Clinical Psychology, if you are lucky enough to be in your 20s, you stand a 39% chance of keeping your resolution. If you are over 50, the chances of success fall to 14%. I guess we lose our willpower, the older we get. Or we too easily fool ourselves that we too can morph into our local version of Beyoncé.

But, here’s a thought: Why not simply reboot your resolution if you fail? After all, New Year’s Day only falls on January 1st in the secular West. But if your resolve has crumbled by the middle of – say – February, why not come over all Chinese, and just start again on Thursday, February 19th? If your willpower fades again fast, just embrace Ancient Paganism and reset your score to zero on Friday March 20th, when the Spring Solstice hits town. If that fails, there is always the Jewish or Islamic New Year on Tuesday September 13th.

This way, the longest you’ll have to keep up a New Year’s Resolution is just six months. Isn’t multiculturalism handy?