New Year's Resolutions

I've heard so many studies that claim that 80 to 92 percent of new year's resolutions fail (just google it, you'll find those numbers accurate and consistent). And 35 percent of new year's resolutions fail by the end of January.

So why do we make them? Why do we continue to promote the creating of goals for the new year? It's not even the start of a new season, but just some random day that we denote as starting a new cycle of the Earth around the Sun.

Knowing that statistic, I've often said: "I won't make my new year's resolutions until February. Then I don't fall into that statistic and I'll have more chance of success." But of course, by February I don't make any resolutions.

So this year I was thinking a lot about it and I think I've come up with a good answer. There is something about a new year that make us feel new. Something about finishing December and doing away with date that you've signed checks with for a year feels fresh. When we enter January 2009 it feels like "the future," it feels like we've entered a new era, a new chapter in our book of life. So we feel empowered to make a change. We feel like, hey, if there was ever a time to start doing something different, it's now.

This year, I think I'm going to try it. Not huge goals, but goals none the less. I'm going to enter the statistic race and treat January 1st like the start of all things new. This not only includes my own health, weight, etc (the most common new year's goal) but things in work, how I run my classes, what I expect from my students, what we are going to set out to achieve and how we're going to achieve it.

Who knows how successful I'll be, but it can't hurt to try.

Wish me luck.