The Great Scam: New Years Resolutions

At the risk of offending those who have made them, I must admit that I believe New Years Resolutions to be the very epitome of denial. If nothing else I justify it as being such because we wait until New Years to make these personal demands. If it were so important than we would have done it immediately. Instead, we put it off and when New Years hits we declare it from the highest rooftop. Two weeks later we've broken our promise to ourselves...

Important moments and changes in life come not from a calendar change, but rather from a cathartic moment which floods your mind with a realization of what needs to be done. If your house burned down would you wait until New Years to find a new place to live? If you broke your arm would you wait until New Years to get it fixed? Yes, yes, I know, those are all important things. So then your New Years resolution isn't?

We say that we're going to lose weight, that we're going to stop drinking or stop eating something bad for us. We declare we will start exercising or that we'll no longer cheat on our spouses or lie in general. We inform our friends we're going to finish that novel, we're going back to school, we're getting a raise at work and a promotion maybe. So don't tell me none of that is as important as anything else in life. In truth, all of those things are incredibly important. Nevertheless, if they mattered to us then we would have done them already.

I view this in the same light as praying. So many people that I know, the ones who are religious that is, pray to their God as though they're speaking with Santa Claus. They have a nice long list of demands, including such absurd luxuries as good luck. Hell, I knew somebody once who told me that he asked God to let him do better on an exam of his... THE BABY JESUS IS NOT SANTA CLAUS!

Sorry, I shouldn't yell. I'm not even religious.

It infuriates me that we refuse to better ourselves on our own. Instead, we need the mystical help of Santa Jesus or the magical auto-catharsis that is New Years. I understand why people may disagree with me on this, in fairness anything that helps people better themselves is good. Right? Well, sure, I guess, but it is apparently not very important to them. I always go back to my opinion that if it was important than you would have done it before. You don't need January 1st to remind you to stop drinking in front of your kids. You don't need January 1st to remind you that Taco Bell is unhealthy, that you shouldn't drive while under the influence of narcotics, or that you should probably avoid beating up homeless people in the middle of the night.

Being confident, being proud of who you are, and always putting the important things on your to-do list is what makes us humans so damn special. If we refuse to find inspiration in making our lives better, then New Years isn't going to save us from the hell we're creating for ourselves.

-Irish

P.S.: Sorry if you were offended.