Never Put Off For Next Year What You Can Do This Year

JOSEPH NEY-JUN
Staff Writer

Out with the old and in with the new, it is 2014! Jan. 1 is recognized throughout the world as New Year’s Day, a tradition taken from Julius Caesar’s reformation of the Roman Calendar many New Years ago. On New Year’s day it is an old tradition to make a resolution. The concept of the New Year’s resolution is traced back as early as the ancient Babylonians.

The Babylonians would make such a pledge to their gods. By fulfilling this pledge, they would be granted the favor of the gods but in the event that they would fail, they would incur the wrath of the gods. They would always follow through on their promise, or so old textbooks, encyclopedias and the internet says. However, according to The Journal of Clinical Psychology at the University of Scranton, only eight percent of Americans reach their resolution.

In any case, a resolution is not something to be thrown aside or taken lightly, it is meant to be followed.
Almost all resolutions are based around self improvement, but it seems that we have lost the will to improve ourselves, save the eight percent of the population. Why is the hope of a better self not incentive enough? People used to stay true to their cause for whatever it may be, through thick and thin. “Never put off for tomorrow, what you can do today,” as founding father Thomas Jefferson once said. The other 92 percent of today’s population is not so old-fashioned, as people put off their goals for tomorrow, then the next day, and the week after that, and the month after that.

We may as well be living in the “Procrastination Nation.” Even the term procrastination is being generous; the word still implies that something will get done eventually. More than anything else, this inability to keep our word has to do with the unrealistic expectations we put on ourselves.

The Babylonians made simple promises, such as repaying debts and returning borrowed farming equipment. They made realistic promises, things that they knew they could stay dedicated to, unlike many of us.

We need to stick to the things that we say, and follow through by accomplishing one goal at a time.

With 2014 make a promise to keep the promises— a much needed resolution for all of us.