Speaking Truth to the Power of New Year’s Day

Leave the resolutions to the Babylonians

Babylonian Akitu Festival

You have the capacity to surprise yourself any day of the year.

A pox upon the dreaded New Year’s Day rituals of resolution, restitution, promises, and pledges that we heap upon our backs like sacks of coal, only to bend under the weight of it all until our bones are brittle and sore…and our resolutions go unfulfilled.

I could easily blame the Babylonians. They set the bar with a new-year festival, Akitu, during which they paraded through the streets to celebrate “victory over the forces of chaos.” They hoped that by fulfilling promises in the new year, the gods would leave them in peace.

The Romans carried forth this unfortunate precedent by designating the first of January as the official start of the new year. In typical Roman fashion, this decision had one foot in pagan religion and one foot in ecumenical life. Janus was the god of gateways and beginnings, so putting January, his namesake month, at the front of the calendar made sense.

But also: the first of January was already the day the Roman leaders traditionally inaugurated new consuls (i.e., bureaucrats). I guess this was an early example of form following function.

Halting a Command Performance

And now we’re stuck with this terrible legacy. We behave as though forming New Year’s resolutions—whether spoken out loud, committed to paper, or whispered to our most private selves—were a condition of life itself when the yearly digit changes.

No other nonreligious holiday expects so much of people.

This year….I will refrain from…I will improve upon…I will become….I will say ‘yes’ to…I will say ‘no’ to….

Fill in your mantra and then dwell in misery all year as your nonaccomplishments haunt you.

Let’s face it: New Year’s Day is designed to set us up to fail.

And who needs that? I sure don’t. And neither do you.

I’ve strengthened my resolve to de-escalate the day and its potential hold over me.

This begins by taking away January first’s special power.

Arguably, every day is the start of a new year, depending on when you begin counting the Earth’s rotation around the Sun. I reserve the right to choose, say, August 9^th as the first day of a new year. You can go ahead and pick June 2^nd. I don’t care.

When you think about it this way, no single day is all that meaningful. No day can hold you hostage to special intentions for a whole year.

As the insipid poster says, Tomorrow is the first day of the rest of your life.

Here’s what else you can do to destroy New Year’s Day’s capacity to destroy you:

Don’t assume a ‘better you’ lives in the future.

January 1 does not confer magical properties to make you better, smarter, kinder, richer, wiser, etc. You can be any and all of those things every day of the year. Become who you want to be now, not later. Because the truth is: you’re already that person.

Resolutions are excuses. Stop making excuses.

Stop relying on the formula: I’ll do x when y happens. Chances are, you don’t need y to happen at all; it’s a crutch. Instead, do x as soon as possible and let the chips fall where they may. A New Year’s Day resolution is an invisible y that doesn’t exist and shouldn’t stop you from starting.

Let your heart, not your calendar, set the agenda.

Pegging a resolution (to start a novel, finish a novel, or other creative endeavor) to a date rarely works as an incentive. Focus on what your heart wants, where your passion leads, and jump in with both feet on any random Tuesday. There is no better time to start than now. Your passion, intellect, and artistry don’t require a calendar or clock to operate.

Waiting is not your friend.

Postponing action on a creative endeavor that matters to you does not serve you. Need time to ‘gird your loins’? Consider them girded. You could fall ill tomorrow, or get hit by a bus. Don’t wait. Don’t focus on preparation (which is an excuse). Just start.

Stop imagining perfection is out there waiting for you.

You imagine that the new year will run more smoothly and more trouble-free than the year before. You’ll have more room, more space, to make your dreams come true. That is complete B.S. You must pursue your dreams, your vision, your artistry in spite of life’s vicissitudes, which are a sure bet. The new year is not your special friend or your savior.

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The coming year…2024, then 2025, then 2026…may not be much different in many respects than the year before.

But you have the capacity to be different any day, in any year. You have the capacity to surprise yourself on May 7^th, July 20^th, October 9^th…any day of the year.

Don’t let the first day of the new year convince you otherwise.