As we ring in the New Year, and you are setting goals for life improvement, you might be surprised to know that the tradition of making New Year’s resolutions goes back 4,000 years. The first resolutions began with the ancient Babylonians; they made promises to their gods to pay their debts and return borrowed objects so their god would reward them with favor in the coming year. The Romans worshiped a two-faced god named Janus to whom they made promises of good conduct for the coming year. In fact, January is named after this god. For early Christians, New Year’s Day became a time to think about past mistakes and make promises to do better in the future. Today, New Year’s resolutions are typically more secular. Some of the most popular s include: Eat healthier, read more books, learn a new skill or hobby, exercise more, save money, get organized, practice self-care, quit smoking, spend more time with family, travel more, get more sleep, learn a new language, spend less time on social media. These all sound reasonable; however, old habits are hard to break and new ones difficult to form. That’s why most people have a hard time keeping their resolutions. Whatever your goals for this coming year, we recommend you choose just one or two. Your library can help you find resources to help you toward success. No judgement here. We might be especially well equipped to help you with the reading one though; just saying because we are your libraries.
“Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.” ~ Albert Einstein