Happy New Year everyone, and if you made it past January 10^th (National Quitters Day) you are part of an elite group that still has a 12% chance of accomplishing your 2025 goals. For a generally positive guy, I’m not sure why I hold a heavy dose of skepticism when it comes to resolutions. Maybe it’s too many years of setting unrealistic goals, failed diets, cancelled gym memberships, and/or easy excuses. Take 2024 for instance, I set a goal to lose 20 pounds, I think I gained 5, but in my defense, I had a lot on my plate! Ba da BOOM! 

As I sat down to write this article, and being a somewhat nerdy financial professional, I was curious about the numbers: top resolution categories, duration, success/fail rates, traditions, etc. I’m here to tell you, my suspicions have been validated, and I am now officially depressed. People, we are an underachieving bunch of humans! According to a recent Forbes survey, roughly 65% of us ditch our resolutions by April, and less than 7% actually see their resolutions through the entire year. And having read the top 5 categories, I can see why: improve fitness, improve finances, improve mental health, lose weight, improve diet….BORING! To be fair, physical and mental health are serious subjects and deserve proper attention, but I think we are looking at this all wrong. We need to bring some fun back into the new year, blow off some steam, THEN start making promises to ourselves that we are not going to keep. 

First, let’s take a page from my overseas friends, shall we? In Ireland, it’s customary to thoroughly clean one’s house to symbolize a fresh start to the New Year. Makes total sense, clean slate, I get it. New Year’s celebrations in the Philippines include wearing polka dots and jumping into the new year, literally jumping at the stroke of midnight, somehow believing that doing so will make you taller? Hey, no judgement. Similarly, in Denmark, they “jump” as well, by leaping from a chair or sofa, thus seriously raising the bar of difficulty. They also throw plates at their neighbors, which is odd, but consider how much fun that would be especially if you don't tell your neighbor. My German friends like to heat small pieces of lead, then cast them in cold water and make a prediction for the new year based on the shapes that form. For example, if a ball forms then luck will roll their way. And finally, in Latin America, the “Año Viejo” celebration means you make life-sized dolls from old clothes, sometimes made to look like politicians (not going there), gather in the town square, burn them, and jump over the fire three times for good luck. I realize I’m going out on a limb here but I’m assuming muchas cervezas are involved. Inside the Howe house, we just clean out closets and bring our clothes to the Salvation Army…very similar to Ecuador but without the fire and booze. 

So, back to our list of goals and intentions for 2025. Again, I’m not cynical about losing weight, eating right, going to the gym, balancing checkbooks, and the like. But let’s lightly acknowledge our intentions to be healthier, both physically and financially, and instead, do what we love to do and do more of it without the pressure of performance metrics or fear of failure. Let’s focus more on the fun stuff like traveling, spending time outdoors, make time for new hobbies, make more time for old hobbies, go for a walk, build a garden, take golf lessons, go indoor skydiving, visit a zoo, buy a hot tub (honestly not sure where that came from). 

I’ll leave you with two more things: 1) after GOOGLING my way around the World Wide Web in search of top New Year’s resolutions, I am now being bombarded by on-line psychiatrists and nutritionists, thanks internet algorithm Genie, and 2) the funniest statistic I found for New Year’s resolutions, 75% of those that failed to accomplish their annual goals are going to make new ones next year. Let’s just hope they do it from the Maldives while throwing plates at a life-sized doll. 

Please contact me at The Howe Team if I can help you in any way as you plan to do more of what you love in 2025 and beyond.