Have you ever been curious about where the New Year’s resolution tradition comes from? In this episode of Everyday Happiness, we discuss the history of the practice and how it often fails.
Transcript:
Welcome to Everyday Happiness where we create lasting happiness, in about 2 minutes a day, through my signature method of Intentional Margins® (creating harmony between your to-dos and your priorities), happiness science, and musings about life.
I'm your host Kat...
Have you ever been curious about where the New Year’s resolution tradition comes from? In this episode of Everyday Happiness, we discuss the history of the practice and how it often fails.
Transcript:
Welcome to Everyday Happiness where we create lasting happiness, in about 2 minutes a day, through my signature method of Intentional Margins® (creating harmony between your to-dos and your priorities), happiness science, and musings about life.
I'm your host Katie Jefcoat, and today and tomorrow, I want to talk about New Year’s resolutions and how they affect our happiness. But first, have you ever wondered where this tradition came from? As I was researching this episode, I was surprised that the origin of this practice goes back 4,000 years to the ancient Babylonians. Apparently, they made a form of New Year’s resolution in March, a time for planting new seeds. They would promise the gods to fulfill debts, return objects, and reaffirm their loyalty to their king. It was believed that if they completed their resolutions, the gods would shine favorably on them in the new year…but bad luck was coming for them if they didn't.
The tradition was moved to January 1st by Julius Caesar, the famed king who changed the calendar. January was named for the two-faced god, Janus, whose power allowed him to see back to the previous year and ahead to the future. During that time, people sacrificed to the god while making promises of good conduct in the new year.
Later, the tradition was adopted into Christianity as a time to reflect on past mistakes and make resolutions to be better in the new year. Today, almost 45% of Americans now take part in this tradition…but are they successful? Unfortunately, not.
Research shows that only 9 to 12% of people actually keep their New Year’s resolutions…even when 52% of people thought that they would be successful.
Tomorrow, we will dive into how our New Year’s resolutions affect us and what we can do to achieve our goals.
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Inspired by this article in https://www.history.com/news/the-history-of-new-years-resolutions
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