Why We Don't Keep Our New Year's Resolutions

Rumor has it that the first New Year's Resolutions were made by the Babylonians. Apparently their most popular resolution was to return borrowed farm equipment. Perhaps I should follow suit and get those library books back before they put up a wanted poster.

Who knows how the New Year's Resolution made it to the States, but it has become a popular tradition, though most people do not stick to their resolutions.

The most popular resolutions are to quit smoking, reduce alcohol intake, to exercise more, and to either cut back on unhealthy food or to increase healthy food intake. (http://www.answers.com/topic/new-year-s-day)
We make our resolutions with gusto; we have good intentions and most of the time, we mean it when we say it.

According to Pauline Wallin, PhD, About.com guide to Mental Health, timing is part of our problem. December is a time of overindulgence, be it spending, eating, drinking, smoking; we overindulge in the things that we often make our goal to change with the coming New Year. We're feeling the pain by the end of the holiday season, thus making us passionate about our resolutions. We feel the need for relief from these things while we vow to change them. (http://mentalhealth.about.com/od/selfhelp/a/newyears.htm

In early January, people are buying memberships to health clubs and dieting. They are organizing and budgeting. But, the urgency for change begins to wane. The problem, in part, is that we made our goals in December, when the things troubling us the most were the things relating to what was prevalent in our minds during the holidays.