NEW YEAR, OLD ME
We’ve circled the sun again!
I don’t mean to be a party pooper, but I’ve always questioned the significance of celebrations on days like today. In my head, I thought, “like every other day, the sun went down after a couple of hours, then it came back up. Why the buzz?” (I’m not like this guy below, btw)
I understand that it’s more complicated than that, anyway. We’re intelligent beings, and we’ve been living here, on this rock, for millennia. Of course, it makes sense that we’d invent the concept of time to measure changes going on around us. I mean, how else would a pre-modern human have made sense of the transition of infants to adults? Changes in time.
Somewhere along the line, we created calendar systems and established traditions around the start of new seasons. You can read more about all of that here. My point here is that when you think back to how it all began, you may be less inclined to expend much energy or get lost in the usual festivities. Read more about New Year’s Day, too.
RESOLUTIONS OR DELUSIONS?
Part of the traditions that follow the New Year celebrations are resolutions. At one point or another, I’m sure you tried penning down some. I don’t blame you if you didn’t eventually see them through. It is very common. Only 1% of people complete their New Year’s resolutions. 1%.
The reason why is simple. Resolutions, for the most part, don’t morph into habits, and anything outside our habits — which are routine behaviours — is hard to sustain. Check out The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg and Atomic Habits by James Clear to learn how to create and maintain habits. One lesson you’d learn from both books is that to form habits, especially positive ones like those in your resolutions, you have to be very intentional about it. The same applies to negative habits.
In Charles’ The Power of Habit, for instance, he introduced the ‘Habit Loop’ to build habits. Cue. Routine. Reward. (C2R). This is a loose interpretation of how it works. Cue: something that prompts you to act. Routine: something done frequently. Reward: compensation for responding to a prompt to do something frequently.
To apply the C2R to a practical example, let’s say I plan to read more books in 2026. To do this, I have to form a habit of reading regularly. To form this habit, I set reminders on my phone at specific times during the day to prompt me to read for specific durations.
Whenever the notifications come in, I pick up a book and read for like 30 minutes or one hour. If I meet my daily requirements from the notifications, I reward myself with N1,000 suya. (It doesn’t have to be suya/you can always change the reward) By the time I do this every day for a week, whenever the notifications come in, I already begin to crave the reward, so I go through with the reading.
If you don’t plan to form habits around your resolutions, you might as well drop them now. It is delusional to expect you can meet them by the end of the year with mere determination.
That being said, I have no resolutions for 2026 — at least, not new ones. I will continue to learn more about the world. I will remain curious. I will continue to strive to contribute positively to society. I will continue to take chances. You should, too.
not people reinventing rituals.
I’ve thought about making New Year’s resolutions, but then it’d be just the same as last year’s. Now I think I’m just going to take each day as they come and work on forming good habits towards my aspirations.