By Divine Apapa
When a new year begins, the festive noise fades. Life returns to normal, and what one has always been doing becomes clearer. As the new year commences, many have made resolutions.
One would say, for instance, “This new year, I will be serious.” However, as the new year progresses, the same lateness, the same procrastination, the same excuses continues.
What this means is that, the year does not expose anything new, rather, it reveals what was already there ; a habit of postponing responsibility.This pattern of behavior is not limited to individuals but also to a nation.
For example, as the new year has begun in Nigeria, it is the same corrupt practices, the same empty promises, the same election rigging that continues.
Calendars change but behavior remains the same thing. This tells the hard truth that, negative behavior is not seasonal; it is a habit. In December, everyone is hopeful and prayerful, declaring that the next year will be better.
But by mid-January, shortcuts return, dishonesty returns, blame-shifting returns and other negative habit.
So, January simply removes the celebration filter and exposes who one really is when life resumes. If the new year truly changes people, then negative habit would expire on December 31st.
It must be emphasised that change does not come from dates. It comes from discipline, accountability, and deliberate action.
For many, the new year is largely symbolic. In fact, many people do not even make New Year resolutions. A major international survey on public behavior found that about 70% of adults do not make New Year resolution in recent times. Even when people do make resolutions, following -through is low.
Research shows that about 80 to 90% of resolutions are abandoned early in the year and only about 8% of people stick to them .This is because humans are wired to assign meaning to dates.
A person always hope that time itself can give a fresh start. However, habits are stubborn.
They are repeated behaviors that run automatically. That is why people struggle to follow through because their brains and routines are already trained for old patterns.
Unfortunately, Social media, celebrations and culture, hype the idea of a new beginning, but without conscious effort, nothing truly changes.
Belief in the new year as a reset creates a delay mentality. It is the habit of pushing responsibility forward, postponing hard action, and believing change can wait. Instead of confronting bad habits immediately, people convince themselves that the year will reset them. So behavior stays the same, while expectations change.This is why resolutions fail , not because people are lazy but because they expect time to do the work of discipline.
The real work therefore, is not waiting for another January. It is confronting bad habits when there is no celebration to hide behind. If the new year truly exposes an individual, then responsibility demands that he or she respond; not with promises, not with resolutions, but with uncomfortable, consistent action because in the end, the calendar will keep changing, and until negative habits change, every new year will always feel familiar.
