A few days before each year’s end, I reflect on the past year, about what I had done right,  wrong, or not at all, and then jot down some New Year’s Resolutions — a clean slate with the best of intentions.  Usually, they include terse reminders to exercise more, eat less, be kind to all, but sometimes add fervent hopes, like change an undesirable habit or accomplish a personal goal.  All my resolutions are well intended, but frequently wane in the passing weeks.  

If you belong to a gym, you will have noted that the first few days into the New Year, the gym is packed with overweight, out of shape people, who exercise way beyond their capability.  Thereafter, soreness becomes the perfect excuse to curtail the exercise routine as being injurious to one’s welfare.  How many friends have touted their new diet, only to falter when it becomes too hard or inconvenient to follow?    

According to a clinical psychcologist, “Approximately 80% of resolutions fail by the second week of February.”  (Joseph J. Luciani, “Why 80% of new Year’s Resolutions Fail.” US News, December 29, 2015.)  He blames this high failure rate on the resolutant’s lack of “self discipline.”  A 2007 study conducted at University of Bristol determined that 83% of the 3,000 participants failed in their quest. (Wikipedia)  Now, I do not feel so bad, knowing that I fit in with the greater majority.    

Interestingly, studies have tabulated the excuses of those who failed to keep their New Year’s resolutions:  35% claimed they had set unrealistic goals; 33% did not keep track of their progress, 23% forgot, and 10% made too many resolutions (Wikipedia, New Year’s resolutions.)  My own favorite: “I changed my mind,” did not make the chart.

But all resolutions do not have to fail, particularly if one approaches them differently, consider:

— “Year’s end is neither an end or a beginning but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us.”  Hal Borland (1900–1978), a New York Times journalist.

I have adopted Borland’s mindset, and now reflect on all the wisdom and experience I have amassed over the past year, which keeps me on a positive path.  Not all New Year’s resolution quotes are consoling, consider:     

— “Good resolutions are simply checks that men draw on a bank where they have no account.”  Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)

— “Many people look forward to the New Year for a new start on old habits.” (Anonymous)

Lastly, I conclude with my favorite New Year’s resolution quote:

— “A New Year’s resolution is something that goes in one Year and out the other.” (Anonymous)