When It Comes to Resolutions, Give Yourself Some Compassion
The modern-day definition of resolution is “a firm decision to do or not to do something.”
A new year is upon us, and with it, new resolutions. And with our new resolve comes guilt and shame over failing at it within the first month. What is wrong with me that I can’t be more resolute in improving myself?
Nothing.
New Year’s resolutions are believed to have begun in ancient Babylon 4,000 years ago. The Babylonians made promises thinking if they kept their word, the gods would bestow favor. If they broke their promises, the gods would be irritated with them.
New Year’s resolutions continued through history with the Romans honoring the two-faced god Janus with sacrifices and promises of good behavior. Onward into the Middle Ages. Knights would place their hands on a peacock, live or roasted. The “Peacock Vow” at the end of the year was a resolution to maintain their knighthood values. The first recorded use of the phrase “New Year resolution” appeared in a Boston newspaper in 1813.
It would seem people the world over down through the millennia understand the New Year as a fresh start of sorts, wanting to do away with past faults and set a course for better ways. But despite 4,000 years of working at it, our success rate isn’t very good…
