New Year's resolutions: reason and unreason

So. The festive season is over, January 2013 is here:

is what it means for most people.

New Year's resolutions are very probably the promises most easily made and most often broken: they're usually overly ambitious, purely personal commitments, and have very few direct short-term consequences if they're broken. Not exactly the recipe for success.
Still, many people uphold this yearly tradition - myself included. The symbolic nature of turning over a new leaf in a brand new year is very powerful and lets you draw a virtual line under the indiscretions of the previous year: wiping the slate clean if you will.

Consequently, the gym that our legion of hopefuls has joined in the past week has been very crowded. To seasoned gym-goers I'm sure this must be the worst time of the year: suddenly your territory is invaded by all these newbies who don't know the rules, wear inappropriate clothing or even sit on one of the machines eating a Big Mac (true story from my co-worker). And then there's me, desperately trying to give out a vibe of "I'm different! I'll still be here next month!".
Because that's the other undeniable pattern that emerges: the gym that was inundated with new members in January, will be comfortably quiet once more once February rolls around. Such is the cycle of New Year's resolutions.

There are a couple of evergreens that can be ticked off every year: quit smoking, stop drinking, lose weight/get fit, save money... Every last one has been mentioned by at least one of my friends and colleagues (or myself, to be honest). It will be interesting to see which of us succeed.

While New Year's resolutions are undeniably admirable, I can't help but wonder at the arbitrariness of the day on which people decide to finally put these plans into effect: all December long (especially around the holidays) people build up to this iconic date when they will finally turn their life around.
Why wait? Why not start on April 1st, June 21st, or - heaven forbid - plain old September 3rd? Sure, there's the whole symbolism of 'a new year, a new beginning', but only if you subscribe to the Gregorian calendar. And surprise, surprise: a large portion of the earth's population doesn't.
For example, our Islamic friends just celebrated a new year in November (1434 AH to be exact), while the Chinese still have a while to wait for theirs: this year it falls on February 10th (Gregorian). Moreover, this last coming of the Year of the Snake is also recognised in South-Korea, Japan and Vietnam - though with less mass migration as a result. All-in-all quite a portion of the 7 billion.

So, to be short: the prime date for planning momentous personal change is entirely dependent on your geographical/cultural background; to other people it might well be just another regular Tuesday.
And to decrease the chances of success even more: because you can easily delay them until the opportune date, their implementation is rarely a matter of life and death. Sure, the long-term consequences of your twinky addiction might include diabetes, high cholesterol and obesity, but the breaking of your resolution by sneaking one of those golden bits of deliciousness (or so I've heard) on January 16th will hardly cause you to keel over dead.
As such, New Year's resolutions are uniquely suited to their name: if you don't make it in 2013, there will inevitably be another chance in 2014. And 2015, 2016, 2017....

Not to be a total downer, perhaps strength can then be found in numbers? Surely most of the western hemisphere is currently struggling to overcome lure of January retail discounts or other such vices; make sure everyone knows about your quest for self-improvement and team up with people with similar goals. You never know, it might just make the difference. At least you can complain about it together. 'A problem shared is a problem halved', right?

It's definitely not all abstinence and self-torture though: imagine the buckets full of money being made by gyms, for instance. For them, Christmas comes in January.


As for me, I will hereby publicly broadcast my own plans/goals for the year:

First of all, the main goal for this year is to pass the JLPT level (N)1.
Preferably in July, as well. For those in the know, this will look ambitious. But the first step has been made, the books have been ordered, and there's no way back.
To implement my own advice: any of my old J-studies buddies up for doing this with me?

Now for more continuous resolutions:

• Go to the gym at least twice a week;
• Blog at least once a week (I'll give a pass to last week);
• Complete 2012's 2013's reading list as detailed on the other page;
• Keep working towards my ideal job.

Where the gym is concerned, so far so good. It's only been one week, but still.




At any rate, I'll keep you posted on my progress.

To finish up: what's your New Year's resolution, if you've made one?