New Year's Resolutions: A Trend or New Habit?

Happy New Year to our readers and clients from 35 media marketing.! Over the past few weeks, we've wrote priorities, goals, recorded countless lines of information, pinning away everything on Pinterest to assist in bettering ourselves for the new year! Now, most people understand the concept of a resolution, but where did they derive from?

According to History.com, in 45 B.C. New Year's Day was celebrated on January 1st for the first time with the newly devised Julian calendar. On becoming one of the world's well-known dictators, Julius Caesar ordered for a new calendar cycle to be reformed. Enlisting the help of an Alexandrian astronomer, Sosigenes, he advised Caesar to follow the solar calendar like the Egyptians did. So, in 46 B.C, Caesar added forty-six calendar days, which meant the following year January 1st was the first day of the year. By 44 B.C., when Caesar was assassinated, Mark Anthony changed some of the calendar names. Fun way to exercise your new power, Mark.

As all trends die out (pun intended), during the Middle Ages the holiday was not observed since Sosigenes' calculations were slightly off by an eleven minute a year error, adding seven days by the year 1000 A.D. and ten by the mid-15th century. By 1582, Pope Gregory XIII commissioned Christopher Calvius, a Jesuit astronomer, to create another new calendar. The Gregorian calendar commenced fixing the issue of leap year and today we still celebrate New Year's Day on January 1st (on the actual day).

After the December holidays I will always hear people casually say, "I can't believe the year is almost over!" I respond as a broken record, "Wow! Me too." According to people in the Middle Ages, it never seemed to end! Jokes aside, it feels like after the hustle and bustle of year-end duties for the final six weeks, the New Year can creep up on some.

Now we enter the new year; "New Year, new me!" (The most annoying phrase that should have stayed in high school.) If a young child asked you what a New Year's Resolution were, would you be able to tell them? According to the Internet, here is the basic definition:

Back in my day, I don't remember New Year's Resolutions being treasured. Maybe a quick scribble to hang-up on the classroom community board, then once February hit everything was all hearts and explosions of pink. Today, not only for young children, I've been noticing as a consumer to continue with New Year's Resolutions. The concept is always in people's faces for the first two weeks of the new year, and now that it's February? Granted this is not a major leap of adding two weeks to a campaign, however there are many more articles and guidelines to help people keep up with their resolutions. And of course, I cannot neglect the fact that I have different interests now than I did within the past five years so the tracking of my digital movements are leading to certain keywords.

Wrapping up with young children in an academic setting, the Cult of Pedagogy highlights a step-by-step plan to help students with their goals from basic group discussions to tracking records. In addition, Parents.com breaks down how to make resolutions a family activity and teaching children how to better themselves in a positive setting.

According to an survey provided by Business Insider, 94 percent of the 1,000 surveyors said it's okay to keep your resolutions for one month. However, 22 percent of surveyors said it's okay to give up by the end of February - a solid sixty days (rounding up for a general two-month period). When I first read that number I thought to myself that this was a pretty sad factor. Over two hundred people from that survey said it was okay to give up. To me, that's crushing a dream. A dream to find employment, improving weight balance, volunteering, bettering yourself, watching less television -- whatever the case may be, it could may be a simple change or life inspiring.

Let's use the example of smoking. Jane or John Doe want to quit so they can get that time back during the day to focus on true priorities. If this was 1960, they'd probably refer to Dr. Maxwell Maltz's book Psycho-Cybernetics where he claims it takes twenty-one days to break a habit. On the other hand, MentalHelp.com states that it takes more than twenty-one days to break a habit, but sixty-six days based on a 2009 study conducted by psychology researchers from University College London. The key to this study is daily repetitions before the new behavior becomes a habit. Please keep in mind that these projections are not the final cured dates, but that certain behaviors are a life-long recovery for various addictions.

To include one of top ten most common resolutions (according to GoSkills.com), one way to help you actually track your weight-loss journey is with an mobile application called Lose It! Considered the top user-friendly app, this tracker is based on calorie counting and weight loss goal-projections. Once you set up your profile, you track all your meals, exercises, steps, and weight daily based on your personal calorie budget calculator. We both have been using Lose It! for the past few years and truly helps!

Published in February (!) 2016, Philadelphia (CBS) opens up with people trading in their resolutions for a chocolate box. Speaking with a Gold's Gym spokesperson, they offer an acronym how goals can be at risk:

• C - Can't find the time.
• L - Lacking a game plan to keep you going.
• I - Ignoring your commitment and falling into old patterns. 
• F - Frustrated with lack of early results.
• F - Forgetting why you started. 

The one attribute that should be taken away from this article is never be afraid or embarrassed to ask for help. Find yourself an accountability coach to at least get you started!

For more inspiration to keep your New Year's Resolutions on track, we highly recommend following our Pinterest board dedicated to the topic! We also have a board dedicated to Lifestyle & Inspiration. We also created a free downloadable to help you with your personal strategic plan and shared insight from The Power of Vision with Lavene Gass.