Ask Cinderella About Midnight
January 4th, 2026
No more new year's resolutions. It was a fun game to play throughout the previous years when a new year begins, but my resolution this year is that I will make no more resolutions at the start of a new year.
Everyone wants a new beginning on a new year, and so is the cliché that it has to happen on January 1st—because technically we’re told that is when the new year begins. Unless you work for a company or government, when the fiscal year starts on October 1st… but I digress.
I say make a promise to yourself every day and keep that promise. A promise is harder to break because you want to be a person of your word. Resolutions are made to be broken, but not a promise. If you are a parent, have you ever had to break a promise to your kid? It sucks, believe me.
A promise has more weight behind it, whereas a resolution is made for fun—like people taking bets on how long you’ll stick to that diet. Or how long the “new year, new me” version of you will last. According to definitions, a resolution is a “firm decision to do or not do something.” A promise is “a declaration or assurance that one will definitely do…”
An AI overview defines it like this: “A promise to self is a personal, internal commitment or pledge to take specific actions, change habits, or achieve goals….. A resolution is a firm decision or determination to do something, while a promise is a pledge or assurance to do something, often with a stronger emotional/moral weight. Many argue that framing a resolution as a promise makes it more powerful because it taps into your personal credibility and emotional commitment, increasing the likelihood of following through—unlike a simple decision that's easily forgotten.”
I like how AI processes the terms. A promise is more powerful because it taps into your personal credibility, which is my whole internal argument regarding my personal declaration about no more resolutions. I don’t want the argument to become simply swapping “resolution” with “promise” with New Year’s, because that defeats my blog. And I don’t want to waste my time or destroy my own argument.
Words are semantics when we argue the true meaning of what we want to inform people on social media about—the change we are about to embark on come the stroke of midnight on January 1st. Making a declaration. Overcrowding the gym. Self-improving for three months. Allowing toxic people back in our life. Those resolutions are decisions based on the things we did during the year and now we regret, or feel bad that we allowed people to manipulate us into doing what we set out not to do.
Food can talk me into some bad decisions! Ever overeat Chinese food and then regret it? Drink more than your share and pay for it later? Argue with someone who you know you can’t change, no matter how good of an argument you make? Resolutions suck on a grand scale, and yet we make them every year at the stroke of midnight. Ask Cinderella what it’s like after the clock strikes midnight.
That’s why I’m done with resolutions. I promise myself every day to be positive and try to see the good in things that might otherwise make me sad. I promise to take control of what I can control and cast off what I cannot. Promises made and kept are better than resolutions that are temporary. I don’t want to let myself down. Midnight doesn’t need to be magic. I can keep my promise without a glass slipper waiting to remind me tomorrow.
618 words
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