The New Year Doesn’t Need Your Resolution
Here’s how to use the “Fresh Start Effect” any day in 2022
2022 won’t be getting a New Year’s resolution from me.
In fact, I’ve never made a commitment of any kind on the final night of December. I’m unconvinced by New Year’s Resolutions.
Productivity-life-hacking gurus, and even the US government, insist it’s good for you to make one.
But I find the more they insist, the more I just don’t want to.
Is there a better time to change your life, or are the gurus right? Is New Year’s the magic moment to transform yourself?
Time for reflection and gratitude — I can buy that.
Usually, I’m the type of person who spends a lot of time thinking about the future. Projecting forward. Imagining the good and bad things that might happen: worrying, dreaming, planning, wondering.
But on New Year’s Eve, I want to be in the moment.
I’m usually listening to music — a live band if pandemic restrictions allow it. I’m watching dandelion-shaped fireworks fill the sky to a soundtrack of cooing, whooping strangers. Soaking up the collective joy and hopefulness.
Everyone anticipating a better year; shedding the weight and disappointments of the old one.
I like the suspended reality we allow ourselves on New Year’s. It’s nice to have a night of blissful optimism: believing a change of date can wipe away the past and give us another shot at getting it right. Another chance at a ‘happy new year’.
I want to suspend reality along with everyone else.
“This year is going to be better!”
“Thank goodness, that awful year is finally over!”
We all know switching our calendars makes no difference. The odometer of life rolling around to the next digit: 2022, means nothing really. But we want it to. So we let it mean something.
We’re reflective, forgiving, and grateful.
Ready to move forward.
We let the date roll us over and want to turn a new leaf. Start fresh. Wipe the slate clean. All those delicious cliches.
And we send our new shiny selves forward with promises to be better.
Admirably purposeful, determined, and unwavering. That’s what resolution means.
But those words fit like a bad shoe this year. How many of us feel admirably purposeful or unwavering right now?
Honestly? We’re wavering. Faltering. Flickering out. Tired.
Resolutions have never fit me overly well at New Year’s. They’re too tight and restrictive during my vacation time. Too pressured with expectations and potential for disappointment.
Most of us fail our New Year’s resolutions, and we know we’re going to, so why do we set them?
Why pressure ourselves?
The research says start points, like New Year’s, are helpful.
Fresh starts are psychologically powerful. That’s why we choose January 1st to quit drinking, join the gym, lose weight, start saving, etc.
But Katy Milkman, a behavioral economist, says we can make almost any day feel like January 1st.
Milkman, with a team of researchers, studied what they call “The Fresh Start Effect”. They wanted to see whether temporal landmarks help us with our goals.
Temporal landmarks are the days or times we consider different than the ordinary:
- a beginning,
- a significant event,
- or a time or day that breaks up our routine.
Apparently, they do have an effect: they stop us procrastinating.
Milkman and her peers found we can take advantage of our “fresh start feelings at naturally arising temporal landmarks to follow through on good intentions…”
But people can also create fresh starts themselves “by strategically ‘creating’ turning points in their personal histories, such as moving to a new residence to start over.”
Here in New Zealand, we celebrate a second New Year in June called Matariki: Maori New Year. But the start of any month can create fresh start feelings.
- Mondays are a fresh-start day.
- Your birthday or another anniversary that’s significant to you.
- The start of a semester or season.
- Even mornings offer a fresh start point!
On New Year’s, I’m on vacation and I want a break.
We need a break.
Resolutions can wait until you’re ready
I’d rather join a February challenge. Set a July 30-day goal. Carefully plan a summer savings target. By that time of year, I’m usually ready to be unwavering, determined, purposeful.
I get stuff done.
In 2021, I lost 9lbs, wrote a novel in 30 days, and saved for my daughter’s braces and a vacation. I also quit sugar for a month using a commitment contract. But they were on my own schedule.
January 1st might be the fresh-start marker you need for your resolution. If it makes you feel good — do it! It’s an excellent landmark to use.
But if you’re like me and find it isn’t a good fit, there are another 364 perfectly good days to change your life.
“…the abundance of fresh start opportunities throughout the year offers repeated chances for people to attempt positive self-change, so even if they initially fail, they may subsequently succeed.” Dai, Milkman and Riis (2014)
New Year’s Eve doesn’t need your resolve. Why not just sit back and enjoy this one?
We deserve a break.