The New Year, the moment the calendar flips from Dec. 31 to Jan. 1, the second the clock strikes midnight on New Year’s Eve, is typically greeted with revelry, optimism and hope. Somewhere between exchanging gifts on Christmas day and the Times Square ball drop, somebody will invariably ask you if you have made any New Year’s resolutions.

Bah. Humbug.

According to History.com, we can blame the ancient Babylonians who came up with this silly ritual some 4,000 years ago. The modern take on these hollow promises always seems to be the same. Saving money, exercising more, and getting healthier are the Top 3 resolutions people are making for 2026. Exercising, eating well, losing weight, etc., all seem to be in the Top 5 every year. All noble and worthy pursuits. We should all be doing those things or some variation anyway. However, according to the Health & Fitness Association, “Nearly 11% of all health club members join their gyms in January, but 80% of New Year’s resolutions are abandoned by February.”

Everything resets in January when it comes to these resolutions, everything except our resolve.

The holidays most certainly put eating healthy and losing weight top of mind as we indulge in work parties and potlucks, family gatherings, festive community events, and maybe a few more adult beverages than usual. It seems like everywhere you turn, someone is handing you cookies and hot chocolate this time of year. So, naturally we tell ourselves we have to eat healthy and exercise in the coming year.

For me, I have successfully started a nutrition (notice I didn’t write “diet”) and exercise regimen the first week of January exactly once in my life. It lasted eight-and-a-half years. The reason I think it worked and lasted as long as it did is because it wasn’t a “resolution,” it was a goal and the time of year was irrelevant. Because of my job at the time, Jan. 3, 2013 just happened to be the very best time to start such a thing. And it worked, I set ambitious, yet achievable goals. I created a blog to keep myself accountable, I tracked what I ate and I lost nearly 60 pounds in two years. Unfortunately, I have to start that evolution all over again, but that is a story for another day.

I have been an avid reader since I was a child. As an adult, as much as I love books and reading, I have become a streaky reader. I’ll binge book series and consume novels and short story collections at a high rate, and then I won’t read anything for months on end. But, every year at this time I set a new goal to read more than I did the year before. I’m rarely successful. I did start tracking what I read in 2019 and have done so ever since. I have yet to come close to the number of books I read in 2020, the worst period of the global COVID-19 pandemic. Not counting the 35 I read that year, I average roughly eight books per year. Not a lot in the grand scheme of things, there are too many cinematic serial TV shows and sports to watch, in addition to this day job (that I love). Doom scrolling has also become a fun time suck. Yet, every year I set a goal to read more than the year before.

Common Sense Ethics cites lack of time, cost of books, not knowing what to read, screens and social media, and not making reading a goal or habit as the Top 5 reasons why people don’t read. Legendary recording artist Warren Zevon once said, “We love to buy books because we believe we’re buying the time to read them.” I have more than 400 books in my house. I have no shortage of reading materials and I continue to add to my TBR pile of biblical proportions.

As access to books has increased readership has declined. Libraries are free and offer books any way you like them. Even online retailers like Amazon.com offer free books for their Kindle products, and there are Kindle apps so you don’t need to own an actual Kindle. Numerous libraries in the area hold periodic used book sales facilitated by Friends of the Library groups. As for not knowing what to read, try the Book Riot Read Harder Challenge. You can sign up for their newsletter which will give you suggestions. If you like horror, you can find a Stephen King Constant Reader checklist online and try to make your way through his expansive body of work. I’d be happy to help you find your way to my books as well (shameless plug).

It is true that there are not many bookstores in the area — Harbor Books, Joie Des Livres, Lemon Hill Cafe & Bookstore and OddDuck Books are the four in Grays Harbor, and depending where you live, a bookstore can be quite a haul.

In early September we created The Daily World Book Nook. You can find out about all kinds of literary activities – author events, writers groups, book clubs, and storytime for the kiddos.

So, as always, I will endeavor to read more this coming year than last. I am also setting some kind of weight loss goal. I’ve done it before, I can do it again. But, what I won’t do is sign up for a gym membership I’ll only use for a few weeks and spend six months trying to cancel. Too bad I can’t drop my body off at the gym and pick it up when it’s ready. I also plan to finish writing a novel I started writing two-and-a-half years ago. I’m 28,000 words in, roughly a third of the way.

The bottom line is don’t make meaningless resolutions you’ll abandon by the middle of January. Set goals, attainable, actionable goals and then work toward them or else you’ll be right back where you were making the same resolutions you made last year.

According to History.com, the ancient Babylonians “made promises to the gods to pay their debts and return any objects they had borrowed. These promises could be considered the forerunners of our New Year’s resolutions. If the Babylonians kept to their word, their (pagan) gods would bestow favor on them for the coming year. If not, they would fall out of the gods’ favor — a place no one wanted to be.”

May you keep the promises you’ve made to yourselves … and Happy New Year!