Hating New Year's Resolutions is Cool Now (And It Shouldn't Be)

Why it's okay to wait for January 1st.

I’ve always found it interesting how around this time of the year, lots of self-improvement gurus start bashing New Year resolutioners. It’s like it has become popular, in the self-improvement sphere, to mock the practice of setting goals for the New Year, motivated by a weird “hustle culture” attitude.

If you've spent any time online recently, you've probably seen the same cynical takes repeated ad nauseam:

”You still have 4 days until the end of the year, if you don’t take action now, you never will.”
“If you wait until January 1st to change, you are not going to make it!”
”If you were serious about change, you’d start now.”
”Real men don’t wait for a specific date to start improving their lives!”

And to be fair, I can see their point. Most New Year's resolutions do fail. Most people are perpetual procrastinators. I’ve also seen too many men who are always waiting for “the next opportunity,” always postponing and never actually taking action, but that just speaks about the average man’s ability to stay committed and disciplined over long periods of time, not about resolutions being worthless. But that’s a problem of character, not the resolution’s fault.

Dismissing New Year's resolutions entirely because most people fail at them is like dismissing marriage because most marriages end in divorce, or dismissing business ventures because most startups fail, or dismissing prayer because most people don’t know how to pray. The failure rate doesn't prove the concept is flawed, it just proves most people approach it wrong.

I love resolutions, and I think the New Year can absolutely be the right time to enact some serious positive change in your life. I think it’s unwise to let the cynics and gurus rob you of a genuine opportunity for growth, change, and commitment to higher ideals. Don’t believe for a second that there’s anything “stupid” about using the New Year as a catalyst for lasting change, because it 100% can be one.

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New Year’s Resolutions are Great

Every year, during the last days of December, I set aside time for my goal-setting ritual: I sit down with a cup of coffee, with no phone or electronics around, take out a new notebook and pen, and write in the first page a list of all the things I’d like to accomplish during the upcoming year. It’s one of the highlights of my entire year.

I allow myself to dream big; I take some time to meditate and try to align my goals with God’s will for me; and it’s always incredibly motivating to think about how different my life could be by the end of the new year that’s about to begin.

I’m, of course, all for taking action. It’s something that I have written about over and over again. But in this case, I disagree with the hustle, productivity gurus, in the sense that I think it’s perfectly valid to set goals for the new year, and wait until January 1st to start pursuing them aggressively.

The Significance of a New Year

The reason why I think that is simple: a new year has significance. It’s a set period of time for a reason. Otherwise we wouldn’t keep track of the years and just live in a continuum. Criticizing people for using the New Year as an opportunity for change misses the entire point.

A year is a specific period of time. It’s long enough to be very significant but short enough that it allows you to plan and project who you want to be after it has passed. Yes, it’s ideal to make of goal-setting an ongoing process, to be analyzing your situation and taking focused action constantly, regardless of the time of year, but the new year presents you with a clean slate. An opportunity to start a new period of time striving to be someone different.

There is something significant about taking some time at the end of the year to reflect, think, and decide, very intentionally, who you want to be next year. I encourage you to take time today to write down a list of your goals if you haven’t already, and to do so carefully, intentionally, and without rushing. Really think about the things you’d like to accomplish, and most importantly, about who you’d like to become.

Time has structure, rhythm, and meaning, and humans are designed to respond to it. For example, January 1st provides what psychologists call a “temporal landmark,” a moment that creates psychological distance from past failures and opens the door to new beginnings. Starting on a random Tuesday in March feels arbitrary and weak. Starting on January 1st carries weight. It’s a line in the sand, a springboard, a blank canvas.

Additionally, there’s also collective momentum when we begin a new resolution on January 1st: millions of others are doing the same, and the culture (at least for a few weeks) supports the idea of fresh starts. That energy is useful, and it can serve as a springboard for you to start enacting the changes you want to enact. Of course, after that initial boost, it’s up to your willpower and discipline to stay consistent, but you could make it easier on yourself and swim with the current of the New Year.

Even the Church structures time intentionally: Advent, Lent, feast days. She gives us designated times for renewal because that’s how human formation works best, and under that view, using January 1st as a starting point for change is perfectly valid.

I absolutely agree with the gurus that you could start at any point. But there’s also nothing wrong with taking the last weeks of the year to reflect, meditate, be with your family, and pray for wisdom, so you can be more intentional about starting the New Year off right. Don’t let the cynics convince you otherwise.

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How You Can Make the Most Out of 2026

Finally, to offer some practical advice, here’s the approach I recommend you take to New Year’s resolutions:

• Invite God into the decision: Don’t think just about what you want, but also ask God what He wants from you. This is a great opportunity to start discerning your calling with the help of the Holy Spirit, and inviting God into your goal-setting ritual recognizes that for all your efforts, He’s the one ultimately in charge of the results.

• Commit, but be ready to change if new opportunities arise: You have to be ready to pursue whatever goals you set for a full year, but you also need to be ready to adjust course if it’s wise to do so. The sweet-spot is somewhere between stubbornness and ADHD. Strive to stay consistent but don’t let your goals enslave you if there’s a good reason to change them.

• Include both measurable and more general goals: I like to include a mixture of measurable, numeric goals, and more generic ones (like “be more patient”, “use my phone less”, etc.). I know the theory of goal setting suggests that goals should always be measurable, but I’ve found this approach to work best for me, since there are a lot of things that can’t be measured that are still worth writing down as goals.

• 5 Resolutions I recommend: If you don’t know what resolutions to set, here are a few suggestions that will work in almost every case:

  • Reduce your screen time. We all use our phone too much.

  • Commit to a spiritual practice daily/weekly. Daily rosary, weekly confession or Holy Mass.

  • Do the Exodus 90 challenge. I’m starting on January 5th and I’ll be doing it alongside a fraternity of any followers who want to join. Drop a comment if you want to join!

  • Learn a specific skill that will help you professionally. Sales, coding, Google/FB ads, etc. Just think about a skill that will help you be more competitive professionally and commit to learning it.

  • Join a gym/martial arts gym and train consistently. Our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit and we should treat them as such.

Simply setting the goals is obviously not enough. After you’ve done that, the real work begins: sticking to them. On that note, I’m writing an article going over a Biblical story that teaches us why resolutions often fail and how we can be the exception to that rule. It will be released this Saturday, so keep an eye out for that!

A Final Thank You

Finally, I just want to take this opportunity to thank you for the incredible support you’ve shown me in 2025. This wouldn’t be possible without you and I hope that I’ve been able to show you my gratitude by writing articles that help, motivate and inspire you.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to pursue my passion.
Thank you for allowing me to help you in the pursuit of sanctity (and for helping me in that purpose too).
Thank you for supporting me and my family.
Thank you for motivating me, day after day, to be a better man.
Thank you for being a part of this journey.

You are deeply appreciated. I hope you achieve all your goals next year, and I hope God sends many blessings upon you and yours.

Most importantly, I pray that next year we can both get closer to God, and do whatever we can to imitate Christ just a little bit better.

You are all in my prayers.

Pro Regno Dei,

Juan

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