Who the hell created New Year’s Resolutions anyway?!?
At this time of year we’re bombarded with social media posts or adverts urging us to lose weight; get fit; buy stuff in the sales before we miss out; set bold New Year’s resolutions; turn vegan; kick the booze; build the business to new levels; sell more, etc…
The pressure to do any or all of these things can be overwhelming. It can lead to negative thoughts such as, ‘others manage to change, why can’t I?’, and ‘I’m rubbish at sticking to diet plans and fitness regimes.’ ‘I always fail whenever I try…..’ And, ultimately, this leads us to the conclusion, ‘I’m not good enough as I am!’
These last few years have been tough for everyone and so I just want to counter that message and say, please be gentle with yourself. If New Year’s resolutions are your thing and the new year motivates you to take action then go for it, use a tool such as PSYCH-K® to help you to succeed! For so many though, it has the opposite effect.
It got me thinking… Where did New Year’s Resolutions originate from anyway? Who created them and why? What I discovered was fascinating!
Apparently, the ancient Babylonians are said to have been the first people to be recorded as celebrating the new year, holding a 12-day festival known as Akitu where they made promises to the gods to pay their debts and return any objects they had borrowed. If they kept to their promises their pagan gods would bestow favour upon them for the coming year. If not, they would fall out of favour with the gods, which they believed would have devastating consequences, such as drought, flooding, crop failure and famine. But, here’s the interesting thing, the new year for them was not in January but in March when the crops were planted. It was only when Julius Caesar changed the calendar that January became the beginning of the new year.
January had special significance for the Romans, they believed that ‘Janus’ a two-faced god, symbolically looked back into the previous year and forwards into the future. The Romans offered sacrifices to the deity and made promises of good conduct for the coming year.
New Year’s resolutions have evolved since then and have moved away from making promises to the gods, instead, we make promises to ourselves. Statistics show that 45% of people make them, but only 8% are successful in achieving their goals. After around 4,000 years of practice, this is not a great track record, is it!! 😉
We know that making promises to ourselves while harnessing our conscious mind and willpower alone is a big ask, so that’s why we often fail spectacularly, leading us to believe that change is really hard! For those of you who have PSYCH-K® in your tool kit, you’ll know that it can help us to make those changes at the much deeper level of the subconscious mind, so that change is easier, quicker and more sustainable. It can even be fun!!
Understanding the origins of New Year’s Resolutions made so much sense to me as I usually take this period of time, through the winter and darker days, to reflect. I take my cue from nature, imagining myself as a seed in the soil, hibernating a little, nourishing myself, spending time gathering resources and reflecting on what I’d really like to do or change in my life, dictated by me and not by society or marketeers or social media. Then, when the time is right, I’m ready to take action. Like the seed, I know when the season changes and the conditions are right to emerge, with everything I need to grow and thrive, so that change is easy and joyful and it feels natural. As opposed to a constant struggle to do what I feel I ‘should’ be doing while dragging myself along a path I’m told is where I should be headed!
Spring is my natural time to begin to set goals and to take dynamic action. So maybe I have more in common with the Babylonian calendar than I thought! Until Spring I’ll spend time reflecting on last year so that I have firm foundations in place to build on and I’ll know exactly what I need to do and how I’m going to plan to do it.
In order to stay focused and not fall into the trap of measuring myself by all the external ‘noise,’ I’ve done a bit of a social media audit and have unfollowed and unsubscribed from anything that might feed the negative mental chatter.
So, if you’ve been feeling under pressure to conform, if you don’t feel ready to dive into setting goals, or simply want to avoid setting yourself up to fail because the timing isn’t right, I hope this message helps.
By the time those New Year’s resolutions are a faded memory, we’ll be preparing to have the best year yet!
Thank you for all your support over the last year.
With love and gratitude.
Sharon xo
