New Year’s Resolution

Is it for You?

About this Activity

Do You Make New Year's Resolutions?

According to an article by Sarah Pruitt in history.com*, the ancient Babylonian people, some 4,000 years ago, were the first people to make resolutions at the beginning of the year. They made promises to pay their debts and return any objects they had borrowed. She writes: “For early Christians, the first day of the new year became the traditional occasion for thinking about one’s past mistakes and resolving to do and be better in the future.”

Many of us make some kinds of resolutions at the start of a new year. We might want to get rid of a few pounds added over Christmas, get more fit, stop smoking, etc.

Making a resolution just for the sake of it is probably a recipe for failure. I have to confess that I stopped making resolutions many years ago. There wasn’t much point as I never stayed long with anything I resolved to do. Definitely not enough willpower there!

Doing it for someone else.

I suppose the idea is not to make the resolution so hard that you can’t keep it up or make it about something easily incorporated into daily life. I like the thought of doing something nice for someone else every day. Very often, we do this without thinking and without needing acknowledgment. Just little things like cooking another person’s favorite meal, opening a door for another person, letting a car into the traffic, comforting a child, etc. Every little act like this generates a positive feeling in ourselves and eases the day for someone else.

I believe I will make this part of my New Year’s resolutions this year.

It’s nice to be nice!

I hope you all have a wonderful, healthy, inspiring, and amazing New Year!

Maria Brady

and the Maria's Place Team