It’s already begun. I’ve put my running shoes in the wash to get rid of the mould and spiderwebs. I’ve created a new Excel spreadsheet to keep track of where all my money ends up. I’m eyeing off a “guitar for idiots” book. That’s right – it’s the semi-aspirational, mostly delusional time when I look at the new year stretching out ahead of me, and make resolutions about all the ways I’m going to fix my silly little life.

But research shows I’m not alone in being obsessed with the transformative potential of a good resolution. Over 70% of Australians are reported to have set at least one new year resolution in 2022. And this is not a trend, either – the practice of making resolutions goes back 4,000 years.

According to psychology professor Joanne Dickson, pledges, promises, vows and resolutions around the new year have been a long practice in history. From the ancient Babylonians – the first recorded people in history to make new year pledges – to knights in the Middle Ages who would lay their hands on a roast peacock and renew their vows to maintain knighthood values, the new year resolution seems to be a staple of the human psyche.

But I imagine ancient resolutions were very different to today (this year I vow not to contract or spread the bubonic plague, or die from a volcanic winter).

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