Project New Year's Resolutions

The arrival of the New Year always evokes a variety of emotions in me. On the one hand, I feel nostalgic for everything that has happened during the past year. On the other hand, the blank slate of the year ahead, with its endless possibility and surprises, stirs a sense of wonder and excitement for what is to come.

Reflecting on 2012, I feel extremely grateful for what the year has brought me. In January, I was promoted at work and went to Jamaica with my girlfriends. I got engaged in February to the love of my life. In the summer, my friends planned two bachelorette parties (I have truly amazing friends), including a dream-come-true trip to Las Vegas. My husband and I married in September and went to Greece for our honeymoon. In the fall I took Landmark education, which empowered me to restore and improve relationships in my life (as well as with myself). I had fun, worked hard, had ups and downs and learned a lot.

Turning to 2013, I have been thinking about what I want to accomplish next and how that is going to shape the year ahead. Generally such musings lead me to create resolutions.

New Year's resolutions have been made for roughly 4000 years, originating with the Babylonians who would promise their gods they would return borrowed items and pay their debts. This tradition continued with the Romans who started the New Year by making promises to their god Janus, a two-faced god who looks backwards and forwards at the same time. The January month was named after this god.

Despite the long-held tradition of making resolutions, statistics regarding the success rates of keeping them are pretty dismal. According to the University of Scranton Journal of Clinical Psychology, published December 13, 2012, only 8% of people are successful in achieving their New Year's resolution. 49% of people have infrequent success, while 24% never succeed and fail on their resolution each year.

Admittedly, I have had little success in accomplishing my own previous resolutions. Most of them I cannot even remember. Two years ago I decided to create easy ones and resolved to make more soup from scratch and floss more. Technically, I accomplished both (I made two or three soups and flossed about a dozen times), but certainly I earned no bragging rights here.

Perhaps the reason us "resolvers" are unsuccessful is because there is no accountability for New Year's resolutions. I often declare them only to myself or otherwise share them with friends after too much champagne. By the next day, no one remembers them, sometimes not even me. And I have yet to hear anyone say to my past failures, "but you resolved!"

According to the Scranton study, "[p]eople who explicitly make resolutions are 10 times more likely to attain their goals than people who don’t explicitly make resolutions." In attempting for 2013 success, I have decided to make my three resolutions explicitly published in my blog:

1. I am going to develop my skills as a writer. I will do this by writing in my morning journal at least five days a week, and by posting at least four blog posts a month. I also plan to publish some of my writing, at least one of them being a Facts and Arguments Essay in the Globe and Mail.

2. I am going to volunteer with seniors.

3. I will improve my organization skills at home and at work by cleaning out clutter and by creating a storage, filing and email system.

I will report on my progress every three months; in March, June, September and December. While I am not sure anyone other than myself will hold me accountable for accomplishing these three goals, I intend for my sharing of them to be a certain accountability in itself. And if I'm not up to speed when I report in March, please comment, "but you resolved!".