Quitters Day and Ditch New Year Resolutions Day

Today is Quitters Day, apparently. According to research*  the second Friday in January is when most people who made a single new year’s resolution are likely to give up. Another candidate is January 17, which is known as Ditch New Year’s Resolution Day**.

The very concept of new year resolutions can prompt strong feelings these days, with many people totally rejecting the idea of January being a month to make any new plans whatsoever, or doing anything at all that isn’t absolutely essential. I sympathise – and I agree the coldest, most miserable month of the year is a bad time for abandoning little comforts even if we know they’re bad for our health or whatever.

However, I do make new year resolutions. I don’t just make one, I make a list of over 100 each year, and I usually succeed in more than half. So far in 2025 my list has about 180 things on it, and I’ll be continuing to add to it throughout January. Regular readers might have seen me post lists of 10 things things I want to do on my blog each year, but I also have a personal list which is much longer.

I’ve been doing this long list annually for over 25 years. I’m not going to take credit for the concept. Successful author Sandra Lawrence is the person who introduced me to the idea, so I have her to thank. There are several reasons why this approach is more effective than a traditional single resolution. For a start, with a lot of goals there’s a good chance of getting at least some of them done. 

How to make resolutions that work

• Make resolutions that are realistically achievable and quantifiable. Rather than writing “Never eat chocolate again”, write “Have at least one chocolate-free day each month” or “Go without chocolate over Lent”.
• That mention of Lent is deliberate. January is a tough time for diets. It’s a bit easier when the days are longer and warmer. Lent was the time for going without fatty foods historically, and it is still more seasonally appropriate. You can always stuff your face with chocolate at Easter or Spring Equinox to make up for it.
• Put some fun things on your list. One of mine is to play crazy golf, for example. Thinking about chocolate again, you could have “Eat a luxury Easter egg”. (You know, I think I might add that one to my list right now).
• You can add things to your list after early January. I normally allow myself until the end of the month to finalise it. So, those people who don’t feel up to making a list on the 1st could wait until the 31st, right before Imbolc.
• If you are struggling to get ideas, consider areas of your life such as home, relationships, career, money, hobbies, travel, wellbeing, creativity, having fun. Other topics could be mind, body, spirit. Or you could simply do a long list of books you want to read, films you want to see, or places you want to visit. You could deliberately aim to step outside your comfort zone by trying a sport or craft you’ve never done before, or a new type of food.
• It can help to get together with friends and brainstorm lists together, bouncing ideas off each other.
• Create a physical list. You can write it by hand in a nice journal or at the front of your diary. You could print it out and pin it to a cork board in your kitchen. Or you could have an electronic list on your phone or laptop. But it needs to be written or typed on a document of some kind, not just in your head.

How to keep going

One of the things on my list is “Read my list each month”. I make a point of doing that on the first or second day of each month and then put a tick there to show I’ve done it. As well as reminding me of my objectives, it’s an easy objective to achieve by itself!

Remember to tick things off the list as you do them, so you can see your progress. I’ve already got a couple of ticks on my list, which gives me a little bit of cheer to see on what is otherwise known as Quitters Day.

Magical ways to guide your life 

References

* Research by Strava, as social network for athletes, discovered the second Friday in January was when motivations are low, by analysing more than 31.5m global January activities.  https://www.thereisadayforthat.com/holidays/various/quitters-day

** https://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/fun/ditch-new-years-resolution-day

The photo at the top is by Rymans, which sells rather nice journals.

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