The True Story of New Year's Resolutions: Babylon, Ancient Rome, Benjamin Franklin, and the Science of Resolutions that Work

Every January, millions of people make New Year's resolutions—and just as many abandon them weeks later. But where did this ritual come from? In this episode, Dr. Keith Sawyer traces the surprising 4,000-year history of New Year's resolutions, from ancient Babylonian vows to Roman civic promises, Christian moral reflection, early American self-engineering, and modern consumer culture. Along the way, he shows that resolutions were never inevitable or instinctive. They're a powerful example of collective creativity: a social tradition that slowly emerged as each generation added something new. Even when resolutions fail, we still grow from reflecting on our past and thinking about the future.

Five Key Takeaways

• New Year's resolutions are a tradition that emerged over thousands of years.
• The earliest resolutions were about social trust, not self-improvement. In ancient Babylon, people made public vows to repay debts and keep promises to maintain social order.
• Christianity turned resolutions inward. Over time, public civic vows evolved into private moral commitments focused on personal character and self-examination.
• Modern resolutions were shaped by early American self-tracking--a science of the self. Figures like Jonathan Edwards and Benjamin Franklin treated the self as something that could be systematically improved through intention and measurement.
• Failure doesn't mean resolutions are pointless. Even when resolutions aren't fully kept, the act of reflection helps people clarify values, imagine future selves, and move toward personal growth.

Chapters

• Intro
• Why do we make resolutions? Reflection and self-improvement.
• The First Resolutions: Babylon, 2000 BCE. Vows to the gods as public tools for social trust and stability.
• Rome Invents January 1. How Julius Caesar, Janus, and Roman vota reshaped the calendar and the meaning of promises.
• Christianity Turns Resolutions Inward. From public ritual to private moral self-examination.
• Jonathan Edwards Invents the Modern Resolution. Seventy intense resolutions and the birth of systematic self-engineering.
• Benjamin Franklin Tracks His Failures. Virtue charts, black dots, and the idea that character can be optimized.
• Newspapers Start Making Fun of Resolutions. By the 1800s, some people were already making fun of how often they failed.
• Radio and Psychology Take Over. How 20th-century media transformed resolutions into intimate self-help.
• Advertising Discovers Resolutions. When self-improvement became a January sales strategy for gym memberships and Weight Watchers.
• How to Make Resolutions that Stick. Research on resolutions: when they fail and what you can do to be more likely to succeed.
• Collective Creativity. Resolutions are a social innovation that emerged over the centuries.
• Outro
• Closer

Music by license from SoundStripe:

"Sparkling Eyes" by AFTERNOONZ

"Uptown Lovers Instrumental" by AFTERNOONZ

"Velvet" by AFTERNOONZ

"Miss Missy" by AFTERNOONZ

"Blue Molasses" by Renderings

"Corner Trio" by Renderings

"What's the Big Deal" by Ryan Saranich

Copyright (c) 2025 Keith Sawyer