New Year Resolutions

I have noticed a growing trend among friends and fellow bloggers of people that don't "do resolutions."  Which made me think about what that really means.


From Webster's online dictionary:
Definition of RESOLUTION

1 : the act or process of resolving: as
a : the act of analyzing a complex notion into simpler ones
b : the act of answering : solving
c : the act of determining
d : the passing of a voice part from a dissonant to a consonant tone or the progression of a chord from dissonance to consonance
e : the separating of a chemical compound or mixture into its constituents
f (1) : the division of a prosodic element into its component parts (2) : the substitution in Greek or Latin prosody of two short syllables for a long syllable
g : the analysis of a vector into two or more vectors of which it is the sum
2 : the subsidence of a pathological state (as inflammation)
3 a : something that is resolved
b : firmness of resolve
4 : a formal expression of opinion, will, or intent voted by an official body or assembled group
5 : the point in a literary work at which the chief dramatic complication is worked out
6 a : the process or capability of making distinguishable the individual parts of an object, closely adjacent optical images, or sources of light
b : a measure of the sharpness of an image or of the fineness with which a device (as a video display, printer, or scanner) can produce or record such an image usually expressed as the total number or density of pixels in the image


Hmmm.... ok so how does that fit with making a New Year resolution? I guess choice 3 a) is closest to being an example of a New Year type resolution.  


So anyway, what's the big problem with making a New Year resolution? I make resolutions all the time, all year long.  I resolve to get more exercise, to pay more attention to what I am eating, and to try to get healthier.  I resolve to get more sleep at night.  Sometimes I am successful at whatever I resolve to do or change, other times not so much.  Sort of like sticking with a diet, I have lots of good intentions at first, but then before I know it, I've fallen off the wagon, and start becoming hap-hazard and next thing I know, all those good intentions have sailed out the window. 


But so what is so different about those day to day resolutions and a "New Year Resolution"? Only thing I can figure out is that by saying it is a New Year Resolution, we are somehow promising to stick to it, and promise to follow through not just "try" and are, at least in our own minds, somehow held accountable to not break them for the entire year? And just as those other day to day resolutions that I've made through out the year and failed to keep, I will fail at the New Year Resolution, and somehow it will be a bigger failure because it has the words "New Year" tacked to it.  Sorry, I don't see the significance.  Or is it because it becomes a more "public" declaration, especially if others ask what your New Year resolutions are, and you share?  By publicly declaring you will stick to your diet, or get more sleep (to use my examples from above), and when you fail, then you become more of a failure because it becomes more public.  Sorry, I don't buy that either.  Oh I understand and accept others declarations that they "don't do New Year resolutions".  That's fine.  Maybe they don't do resolutions at all.  But I will admit to myself that I do do resolutions.  And I normally repeat the same ones over and over, and I break them over and over, but then I dust myself off and get back on track and start all over again with good intentions.  
Call them New Year resolutions or not.  It matters not to me.