Thursday Thoughts With TJ: On Being An April Fool

ILLINOIS — Happy New Year's Eve, dear readers!

No, you didn't read that wrong. No, I didn't set my calendar back along with my clock. No, I didn't bump my head and forget what planet I live on.

This is the time of year when we should be making New Year's resolutions, not in the doldrums of winter. I am an April Fool, and I will die on this hill.

I'll explain.

First, a brief history lesson:

It wasn’t until the times of Julius Caesar in 45 B.C. that Jan. 1 started to become accepted (or forced upon) as the beginning of the new year, and many “barbaric” cultures continued to celebrate the new year on April 1. In fact, it wasn’t until the late 16th century that the Roman Church, under the direction of Pope Gregory XIII, finally sealed the Jan. 1 official date via the Gregorian Calendar, and France’s King Charles IX solved the date problem in a similar fashion with the Edict of Roussillon, which got all of France and her subjects on the same page. It was a literal sign of the changing times.

Interesting, right?! I thought you might find it so.

So, historically speaking, now is a better time for those resolutions. And, practically speaking, now is a better time to make and be able to keep those resolutions. Why? I'm glad you asked.

Jan. 1 is a terrible time for resolutions. Most of us have just spent the better part of the early winter planning for the holidays, feasting and generally going crazy with stress and food overload. We’re really in no condition, mentally or physically, to assess our well being or long-term goals for the upcoming year, especially in the Midwest.

We've been clearing snow (sometimes) from our homes and vehicles. We've been dealing with frigid temperatures. We've suffered through shorter days and longer nights.

No, winter is not the time to decide how to make the next year better than the previous.

So I propose, in the true spirit of an April Fool, that all New Year’s resolutions should be wiped from the board. A tabula rasa, of sorts. No one’s resolutions should be taken seriously until we can at least start to see the grass again.

It just makes much more sense to me to make resolutions in the spring. It’s the natural time for new beginnings and the like. Why should we try to go against nature? Trick question. We shouldn't.

Spring is the time when we’re finally thawing out (mostly) from that deep freeze. All around us the flora and fauna are returning to their vibrant states. Our general state of mind is much more suited to thinking positively about the world around us. So, why not take advantage of this special time of year and really make some resolutions that we can stick to?

The problem with making winter resolutions is that we’re just setting ourselves up for failure. We’re stressed, we’re cold, we’re tired and our bodies are really just in survival mode. We can’t realistically expect to be held to whatever lofty goals that we concoct in our winter-broken heads, no matter how well-intentioned they may be.

The added pressure of losing 20 pounds, or running 1 mile everyday, or not biting our nails, or learning a foreign language is too much on top of just surviving the winter.

I propose we get a do-over on our resolutions. Scrap all those Jan. 1 ones. Just toss them out, if you haven't done so already by now.

Imagine how much better prepared we'd be if we worked toward our goals while not fighting the elements just to stay alive, as is our biological imperative in the winter.

The point of all this being that an arbitrarily chosen day shouldn’t lock us in to setting goals during a time of year when we’ve got more important things on our minds. If we really want to be successful in our new year endeavors, then it’s best to hold off on making them until our brains have the luxury of thinking in a rational way about what those goals should be and how we should best go about achieving them.

So, make some new New Year’s resolutions now, when we’re supposed to make them. This may make me an April Fool, but I suspect I’ll be a lot happier and more successful with the results. And I think you will, too, dear readers. Make April Fools' Day great again!

May the Force be with you, always!