Research indicates that social media chatter about New Year's resolutions has dropped by 50 percent, as people grow tired of pursuing perfection alone. This invites a look back to the original meaning focused on communal effort.
Data from Brandwatch reveals that mentions of New Year’s resolutions on social media have fallen by 50 percent compared to last year, reflecting public fatigue with setting goals solely focused on themselves. Four thousand years ago, in Babylonian and ancient Roman times, New Year’s resolutions were not personal matters but religious rituals where people would repay debts and make joint promises to do good for their gods and community. Even in 1947, a Gallup Poll found that the most popular goals were to be more understanding and better at controlling emotions—very different from today’s focus, which is mostly on body shape and dieting.
Why are shared goals more effective? Psychology professor Tim Kurz points out that the behavior of those around us nudges us to follow through. For example, if a family sets a goal to care for elderly relatives, seeing a partner bring gifts to a grandmother can remind us to call our own grandmother as well.
Moreover, working as a group helps reduce resentment toward individuals who stand out by turning those around from critics into supporters, since everyone shares the same goal.
Strength does not come from sheer willpower alone. Willpower often fails under stress because if we fail, only we are disappointed. Evolutionarily, humans survive by cooperating. Goals that consider others—like community gardening or taking turns cooking for the family—are more sustainable because they preserve relationships and trust within the group rather than focusing solely on oneself.
Ultimately, true self-development might not be about having a perfect six-pack or quietly sipping matcha but about expanding the meaning of "self." Botanist Robin Wall Kimmerer expresses this idea: my happiness is my family’s happiness, and my family’s happiness is the health of the land that sustains us.
Starting New Year’s goals with a focus on community and those around us might be the shortcut to genuinely becoming a better version of ourselves.