What Will You Change this Year?

Are New Year’s resolutions outdated? Should they be?

Read for free @ What Will You Change this Year? — by James M. Dakis

Are New Year’s resolutions outdated? Should they be?

Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash

New Year’s resolutions have a past.

The idea of New Year’s resolutions is not simply an American or Western culture. Nor is it one of contemporary making. The first traditions of making New Year’s resolutions can be traced to ancient Babylon some 4000 years ago, when people would vow to return borrowed objects, make good on debts, and right any wrongs done in the past year. It was done to please the gods of their religion and hopefully get in their good graces for the following year. A similar tradition would be started with Julius Caesar, although the calendar would change, as would the god to be appeased.

Why do we make New Year’s resolutions now?

Like it or not, we can all look back at last year and see some things that we would have done differently. We may even have habits or practices that go even further. However, this year it will be different! In my experience, the most common resolutions that I hear…