Why I Do not Make New Year Resolutions

I have not made a single New Year resolution for more than sixteen years now. However, I do not condemn those who do. Nevertheless, I wish to give four reasons why I do not make such resolutions.

First, I do not make New Year resolutions because I do not wish to blindly follow the crowd. The easiest way to live is to do what most people do without asking why they do it. To some extent this is understandable, because from childhood we learn a lot of what we do and believe by imitation. My two little boys want to “work” at my laptop because they see me busy at it; one of them has even declared that he will go to work, get money and buy me a toy! Nevertheless, now that I am a grown up,  I need to chart the path of my own life, and a major part of this endeavour is to determine to desist from acting in certain ways simply because most people act so. I therefore do not make New Year resolutions because I do not wish to be a conformist, but rather a reformer if not a revolutionary. History is made by the few people who dare to be different in the name of personal and social progress: the vast majority who keenly but uncritically conform to tradition are only its backdrop. 

Second, I shun New Year resolutions because they very often arise from baseless optimism. To be sure, I have met a few people who carefully choose their New Year resolutions based on an incisive evaluation of their lives, and take concrete action to implement them throughout the year. Nevertheless, for most people, such resolutions are borne out of the illusion of "new beginnings". Thus year after year, as December draws to a close, I hear politicians declaring that the “New Year” will be markedly different from the old one - that it will be a year of reconciliation, or of resolutely fighting corruption, or of addressing whatever other pertinent issue about which the citizenry has been pressurizing them, only for them to revert to their bad manners within a week or two. As for the vast majority of the citizenry, exhausted by the pressures and disappointments of the last twelve months, they are excited, declaring that the year that is beginning will certainly be better than the previous one. They make New Year resolutions, but by the beginning of April, many of them have forgotten their resolutions, or if they still remember them, they sadly have to admit that they have long abandoned them in practice. It is also very rare to find anyone reviewing how well they did with the resolutions of the year that is ending: why? Because this New Year resolution thing is very often about baseless optimism without real determination to see through the implementation phase. I often imagine that if a “New Year” was a person, I would tell him or her, “Enjoy the fondness with which you are being treated on 1^st January, but also understand that in the next twelve short months those who lauded you will be keen to dispose you as though you were a filthy garment or used tissue paper!”

Third, I do not make New Year resolutions because I wish to focus on lifelong objectives rather than those of a mere twelve months. Placing undue emphasis on a single year misses the point that what I am today is the result of years of my good and bad decisions, and what I will be twenty years from now, if indeed I still have that much time, will be the result of numerous decisions that I make over the coming nineteen years. What I want to keep asking is “Who am I?” “What is the purpose of my life?” “Is my lifestyle aiding me in achieving the purpose of my life?” Such questions cannot be addressed adequately through the making of New Year resolutions, but rather through deep soul-searching that soberly assesses the past and projects into the possible future. Thus instead of New Year resolutions, I want to be guided by awareness that grows into understanding and crystalises into genuine conviction; for genuine conviction translates into lifelong practice. Thus if I am overweight, I need to be aware of the extra Killos by standing on a weighing machine; I then need to understand the debilitating effects of carrying those extra Killos around day and night (dangers of systemic diseases, many of which result in early, or even sudden death); the understanding grows into a genuine conviction that I must take decisive lifelong action to keep my weight at a healthy level, and this will result in lifelong action to control my weight (diet and exercises), rather than a New Year resolution that I will break by April. This process is helpful whether I am dealing with personal financial management, use of time, hot temper, or the many other challenges that I may confront.

Fourth, I avoid New Year resolutions in pursuit of cultural decolonization. Making such resolutions entails conceding that the European New Year is also my Luo New Year. The declaration of a day as the beginning of a “New Year” is always based on a religious calendar that is tied to certain religious events. The Wikipedia article titled “Gregorian Calendar” lists the numerous religious calendars in the world today. Thus most, if not all, religions have their own distinct calendars. The calendar by which 1^st January is declared to be the beginning of a new year is based on European religion (and here I do not mean the teaching of Jesus Christ, for He is not a European). Recognising 1^st January as the beginning of a new year is paying allegiance to European gods, ancestors and kings.  As clearly indicated in the Wikipedia article I have just cited, the names of the months of the year that we use today are all in honour of European gods, ancestors and kings to whom I owe no allegiance:

• January: Janus (Roman god of gates, doorways, beginnings and endings).
• February: Februus (Etruscan god of death) Februarius (mensis) (Latin for "month of purification (rituals)" it is said to be a Sabine word, the last month of ancient pre-450 BC Roman calendar). It is related to fever.
• March: Mars (Roman god of war).
• April: The Romans thought that the name Aprilis derived from aperio, aperire, apertus, a verb meaning "to open".
• May: Maia Maiestas (Roman goddess of springtime, warmth, and increase).
• June: Juno (Roman goddess, wife of Jupiter).
• July: Julius Caesar (Roman dictator) (month was formerly named Quintilis, the fifth month of the calendar of Romulus).
• August: Augustus (first Roman emperor) (month was formerly named Sextilis, the sixth month of Romulus).
• September: septem (Latin for seven, the seventh month of Romulus).
• October: octo (Latin for eight, the eighth month of Romulus).
• November: novem (Latin for nine, the ninth month of Romulus).
• December: decem (Latin for ten, the tenth month of Romulus).

In another article titled "Names of the Days of the Week", the Wikipedia informs us that those are also all in honour of European gods.

I do not wish to suggest that I have any power to change the reckoning of years, as well as the names of months and the days of the week: I must relate to my employer, to the marketplace and to the state in terms of those foreign categories. What I have power to do, and what I am doing, is to preserve my liberty, as far as I am able, by refusing to conform to European cultures in personal aspects of my life about which I have considerable latitude to do things differently.

In sum, my view is that life is too short to be wasted on New Year resolutions whose practical lifespan is likely to be one to three months, and that are not solidly related to my long-term past and future. Instead, pursuit for awareness, understanding and conviction leading to decisive lifelong action is the way I endeavour to go. Every 1^st January the sun rises just the same way it does every other day, but the decisions I make daily affect the quality of my life and the lives of my family, friends, neighbours, country, and humankind as a whole.

Reginald M.J. Oduor, Ph.D.