By Olakunle Olafioye
Starting on a positive note from the first day of the New Year is a habit many people embraced in the past with their New Year’s resolutions.
But this culture appears to be gradually fading away as most people claim they no longer fancy this age-long practice for a couple of reasons.
Ms. Efe Ogbeide said that she gave up on the idea of making new year resolutions at the beginning of the year because it has never worked out for her.
She recalled making a number of attempts to end a few habits which she felt needed to be dropped, but failed to see them through beyond a couple of weeks or at most a few months.
The idea of new year resolutions, according to Efe, puts her under undue pressure and makes life uncomfortable for her while she tried to break the trend.
“I tried it in the past years without any success. But on a number of times I have succeeded in ending some practices which ironically happened when I did not even make them as resolutions at the beginning of the years in which I stopped them.
“So, I have come to realize that some habits are better broken when one feels compelled to break them and not necessarily at the beginning of the year. Even doing so at the beginning of the year has a way of putting pressure on you,” she stated.
Beyond the failure to see their new year resolutions through the year, there are other circumstantial reasons people refrain from the practice of making new year resolutions at the beginning of a calendar year.
An instance is Mrs Bisi Ojelabi, whose addiction to carbonated drinks had seen her break several resolutions to end her cravings for the drinks on several occasions.
Ojelabi said that she had planned to make breaking this addiction her resolution for Year 2025.
She was, however, forced to stop the lifestyle abruptly after she lost a close relation to diabetes last August.
Her words: “I am not the kind of person who makes new year resolutions but I have attempted severally to stop my penchant for soft drinks. Coincidentally, the decision to stop it normally falls at the end of the year, especially after the Christmas festivities and merriment.
“It’s always like, ‘let me enjoy this Christmas and afterward I will stop taking soft drinks,’ but the idea would last for some weeks after which I’d find myself neck-deep in it once again. But the demise of a relative who died of diabetes in August 2024 made me put an end to the addiction.
Otherwise I would have probably waited until this January before making another attempt to stop the addiction.”
Mrs Ojelabi has a soul mate in Mr Ernest Ideh who, having failed on a number of occasions to stop his patronage to viewing centres in a bid to watch his soccer team play.
Ideh, who claimed to have developed the habit since he was an undergraduate said the routine had suddenly grown into an addiction which he found very difficult to break.
In particular, Mr Ideh said his wife had a serious aversion for his habitual visits to viewing centres because she couldn’t fathom the spirit behind the idea of leaving his home to watch soccer matches at the centres when he could stay at home to watch the same matches.
“What she didn’t know is that there is a big difference between watching a soccer match alone or with your family members at home and watching it at viewing centres where you have fans of different soccer teams. This often caused misunderstanding between us and despite trying hard to stop, including making it my new year resolution a number of times, I found it difficult to discontinue,” Ideh stated. Ideh said he was however compelled to break the obsession after he sustained an injury during a brawl at a view centre. Ironically the breakthrough came about three years ago when he didn’t even make it his resolution for the year. “Since then I lost interest in making new year’s resolutions because it has never worked for me. I now believe that changes will take place when they are destined to happen,” he stated.
Testimonies abound about people who have succeeded in actualizing their yearly resolutions, there are quite a number of people who claimed they have never made it good with their yearly resolutions.
Thus their failure to see their resolutions through in the past remains a major disincentive to making new ones.
Rufus Nduka belongs to this category of people.
According to him, “I stopped making new year resolutions because most resolutions made by people at the beginning of the year are largely borne out of trends and fad rather than out of genuine intentions to live or to become a better person in the new year.
“Since I was a child I had listened and heard people make resolutions and at some point I just felt I should follow suit even when I didn’t really have enough convictions to really embrace the changes I craved for. But in the end I found myself going back to doing those things. ”
What is the position of the Bible on new year resolutions?
Christian clerics shared similar views on the issue of resolution and maintained that making resolutions to live a better life should not be delayed or limited to the beginning of the year.
Supporting his view with Lamentation 3:40, Pastor Abiodun Ashade of New Life Evangelical Mission, said the Bible encourages that people should make resolutions to embrace Godly principles and lifestyle, saying, “the Bible certainly encourages us to examine our lives and resolve to change them if necessary. We should, however, note that this should not be just at the beginning of a new year.
“The Psalmist, for example, made a resolution to keep his speech pure: ‘I have planned no evil; my mouth has not transgressed’ Psalm 17:3. And Lamentation 3:40 ‘Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the Lord.’”
On why most resolutions fail, Pastor Ashade, said that much of what people refer to as resolutions are mere wishful thinking, adding that those who make them lack the will power and the discipline to live up to the new standard they desire to attain.
“Sometimes it is simply because people are not realistic about their resolutions. Instead, what they refer to as resolutions are only wishful thinking, with no will power and discipline to make them actually happen. For example, a father who resolves to live more responsibly as a family man must first identify those things that made it difficult for him to accord his family the priority attention his family deserves and to do away with them. It could be keeping bad company or living an extravagant lifestyle, if he does not have the will power and the discipline to address the issue first, it will be pretty difficult for him to make good his resolution,” he posited.
Another Christian cleric, Pastor Amos Ibikunle, cited examples of biblical characters, who made resolutions to do what was right in the sight of God.
He supported his claim that making new year resolutions is biblical, saying, “Daniel and Joshua are two major characters in the Bible that made resolutions to please God. In Daniel 1:8, Daniel made a resolution not to defile himself with royal food and Joshua in Joshua 24:15, made a resolution to the true God alongside his family.”