Make new year’s resolutions because you want to change, not because the date has changed

After months of advertisers selling us the Christmas excess, retailers have pivoted to selling us self-discipline. We shouldn’t be fooled

Sitting on the toilet at 11.50pm on 31 December while my friends party on the other side of the door, I’m desperately searching for inspiration. With my Notes app in hand, and visions of myself in a bikini, I’m writing a comprehensive list of all the ways I will punish my body for the next 12 months as penance for a Christmas of indulgence. Resolutions I’d forgotten to write earlier and suddenly felt compelled to get down before the stroke of midnight, or else face going into the new year the same old me. It was a panic-inducing thought.

A quarter of Brits have succumbed to the pressure of making new year’s resolutions and according to YouGov, women are likelier to than men. The most common resolutions? Lose weight, exercise more, improve your diet, stop smoking and drink less. And although seeking positive change and health in our lives is admirable, we should fight the fad for resolutions.

Of course, new year’s resolutions are not a new concept: they can be traced as far back as the ancient Babylonians and to Julius Caesar’s Rome, where promises of self-betterment were made by worshippers to their gods. But today’s resolutions are different. The 21st century has seen new year’s resolutions morph into, at best, social media fodder, at worst, a cynical capitalist ploy.