The Problem with New Years

When I wrote “The Problem with Christmas” I was already focusing on what I felt was wrong with the new years holiday. In all honesty I found that there is not much wrong with the general idea. New Years, in my opinion, has to do with starting over, and with Christmas just a week past it flows well together. Winter from where I live is practically over (though there isn’t much of one to begin with) and starting fresh feels right. However there is still my mental itch with new years, something about it turns me off.

What I feel is wrong became obvious with all the commercials I witnessed over the next few consecutive days. The ads were going on and on about how your New Year’s Resolution would be to lose weight (through the company’s products) or become active, etc. This is the thing that turns me off. The act of setting a goal for the year is tedious, fruitless, and because it is fruitless it is rather disappointing when you break that promise to yourself. I realize now that I have not made a New Year’s Resolution for years, back when I was too young and impressionable to learn that it is actually fruitless. This might be the start of my mental itch about the holiday.

To me setting a goal never really worked out. Especially if the goal I set is for the long term, such as get more active. I always get off track, and fail in my personal mission. This could happen for a number of reasons. Numerous obstacles can come up and at least one of them will be an immobile one.. one that cannot be overcome despite any type or amount of determination. This type of failure is heartbreaking, and if the type of determination is strong enough it can even lead to a depression (because after all they failed themselves).

But the reason I often go off the path to a goal is because my ideals might change from when I set the goal to when the goal should come to life. I feel like the goal I set was pointless because I do not believe in the success anymore. Ideals can change often, and any long term goals (such as one for the entire year) will bound to witness several ideal changes that will undermine the goal. This is the reason New Year’s Resolutions have such a disappointing success rate. Sure there might be other factors, such as an immobile obstacle, but the change of ideals kills nearly all goals for the long run.

To put it on a larger scale (and to show that it can happen there too), evolution allows species to adapt to new weather. When an ice age strikes, species evolve to handle the change by growing more fur, change their daily behavior, etc. It is the change back to global warming when the species suddenly becomes extinct. The species cannot handle the change even though they should, it was their original environment after all. But what really happens is that the change back is actually another large push on the species, and often species cannot handle the second push over the edge. In this view I realize that goals and ideals are actually different than I’ve lead it to be thus far.

It isn’t the change in ideals that is the killer after all. In reality it is the change back to the original ideas that kills the goal. What happens at New years is people view themselves differently than the rest of the year (it is the nature of the holiday discussed earlier). People become more critical than they actually are, and view themselves harsher than they should. In other words, their ideals change for the holiday, and the change preempts a goal to make themselves a better person. But when the holiday is over their ideals change back to their normal self, and this knocks the goal down.

I know now why deep down I feel New Year’s Resolutions are fruitless, it makes perfect sense to me. People around the country (and the globe) change for the holiday, and it is not for the better. They do not realize that their belief is not their common belief; basically it makes them lie to themselves. I knew this deep down even though previously I could not explain it. I could not explain why goals turn me away in disgust (much like alcohol does) but I realize not that what happens in the holidays stays in the holidays, and goal setting is doomed to fail because it tries to travel beyond the border where it cannot survive.