The paradox of failed resolutions

Summary

Ah, the seductive lure of a resolution. It’s like projecting a better version of yourself into the future, powered by ambition and a bit of willful forgetting. History is filled with such grand plans, thwarted by reality. And the evidence is all over brilliant people’s notebooks. After all, notebooks are where resolutions are made and where they are broken. Unsurprisingly, ambitious people tend to be ambitious with their goals, setting themselves up for failure—or success, depending on your perspective. And my perspective has certainly shifted after observing many successful people fail to meet their resolutions in the pages of their notebooks.Here’s what I’ve learned: Counterintuitively, making resolutions you can’t possibly keep can be incredibly useful. I owe this lesson to Samuel Johnson—whose zeal for resolutions was matched only by his inability to meet them. Yet, despite this (or because of it), he was remarkably productive, leaving behind a legacy that has shaped a good deal of literary history. Following Johnson’s lead, I dug through Noted’s archives to find other examples of failed resolutions. Here are a few of my favorites.I started thinking about resolutions while writing about Johnson for the essay, “5 Ways to Deepen Your Diary Practice in the New Year.” He constantly recorded resolutions in notebooks called “Prayers and Meditations.” Johnson’s notes got me thinking. By his own account, he failed to meet so many resolutions. On his birthday in 1764, he writes,I have now spent fifty-five years in resolving; having, from the earliest time almost that I can remember, been forming schemes of a better life. I have done nothing. The need of doing, therefore, is pressing, since the time of doing is short.And yet, Johnson was remarkably successful. He published the definitive English dictionary for the 18th century, standardizing usage and spelling, and he wrote extremely popular essays. Clearly, failing to meet his resolutions is only part of the story. What ...