It’s that time of year. But is anyone making resolutions anymore?
I am but only as a default.
On Dec. 11, I said: “Resolved: I will get on my treadmill every morning after breakfast for 20 minutes – to start a new habit.”
Some experts say it takes 21 consecutive days for a new behavior to become a habit. Other experts say it takes 90 days for a new habit to become part of a daily routine. I’m skeptical.
Two days after I started my new practice, I missed a day, so I decided to start all over again. As of today, I’m on my way to the proverbial 21/90 scheme. I may or may not make it. Or I may be counting the treadmill resolution as one of many over the years that have fallen away and made me feel guilty. So much for a test-drive strategy.
Search the internet and you’ll find many lists of common and/or comic resolutions. Here’s a composite of the 10 Most Common: Exercise more, lose weight, get organized, learn a new skill or get a hobby, live life to the fullest, save money, spend less, quit smoking, spend more time with the family, travel more, read more, etc.
Are any of these on your list? Do you even have a list?
Every year Forbes conducts an annual poll about new year’s resolutions. It’s titled Forbes Health/One, so it is already skewed. It asks a random adult sample of Americans about resolution-setting and what types of goals are prioritized.
Here are the most common resolutions from the Forbes 2023 poll:
• Improved fitness (48%)
• Improved finances (38%)
• Improved mental health (36%)
• Weight loss (34%)
• Better diet (32%)
In single digits, way down the list you’ll find more travel, meditation, less drinking and better work performance – a mere 3%. Signs of 2024 – not 1924 or 1944 or even 1974.
Forbes also learned that 62% say they feel pressured to set new year’s resolutions, women more than men by a narrow margin, 64% over 60%. Apps, apparently, are the most popular tool used to maintain accountability. The most popular range from diet programs and gym memberships down to habit tracking, calorie counters. And, at the bottom, meditation apps.
The Forbes survey is only one of many and it is skewed to an employed, generally healthy, middle-and-upper class Western demographic. Think of any other group and resolutions will be different – or there is no such thing at all. A colleague reminded me that in much of the world where food or shelter are the two biggest concerns, no one is making a resolution other than finding sustenance and shelter. So, it’s appropriate to remember our privilege as we even think about the topic.
The custom of making resolutions centers on change. And change is rarely easy. I’m reluctant to say, “Change is hard” because that notion evokes Western privilege all over again. What’s so hard about getting on a treadmill every morning after a good breakfast, coffee and reading The Durango Herald?
In Tom Sparrow’s book, “A History of Habit,” he tells us that today’s self-help mania that drives so much of American culture dates from Aristotle. The 18th-century enlightenment philosopher David Hume preferred the word “custom” to “habit,” and he credited customs as the main drivers of human society. In 1890, American philosopher William James expressed a similar view in “The Varieties of Religious Experience.” James said that habits and custom define human societies.
In 2024, we’re likely to undergo more societal change in the form of continuously shifting norms and the already apparent downturn in civility. What kind of a society do we want to live in? Can we be part of an uptick in civility, or is it too late?
I’m adding a resolution about civility to my limited list. Maybe one simple resolution isn’t frivolous after all.
Judith Reynolds is a freelance journalist, political cartoonist and former art history professor who has lived in Durango for a quarter century.
