New Year’s Resolutions: Some Advice From Jonathan Edwards and Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin devised a list of 13 virtues that he sought to live by. Biba Kayewich

With 2025 just around the corner, many of us are contemplating a New Year’s Resolution or two.

Some will qualify their resolutions, as in “I’ll diet during the week but eat what I want on the weekends” or “I’ll give up cigarettes and take up vaping.” The first stanza of Rudyard Kipling’s “New Year’s Resolutions” perfectly captures this allowance for wiggle room:

I am resolved—throughout the year To lay my vices on the shelf; A godly, sober course to steer And love my neighbours as myself— Excepting always two or three Whom I detest as they hate me.

Of course, as the days go by, many of us will simply abandon our quest for self-improvement. According to Dr. Asim Shah of Baylor College of Medicine, “studies show that 88 percent of people who set New Year’s resolutions fail them within the first two weeks.”

Lest we think that we are weaker than our ancestors in keeping these promises, here’s a piece from “The Wheeling Daily Register” of 1869:

“New Year’s Resolutions—A striking illustration of the truth of the proverb that a certain road is paved with good intentions was the remark made by a tobacconist the other day. ‘On New Year’s Day,’ said he, ‘I always find a sudden and tremendous falling off of my business. After doing an unusual amount of business Christmas week, I sell scarcely any tobacco on New Year’s Day, and indeed very little during the first week thereafter. Gradually, however, my old customers, having broken their New Year’s resolutions, come dropping in one by one, and before the end of January I sell as many cigars and as much tobacco as ever—indeed rather more.’ Poor human nature!”

Opposite this example of failure are two famous Americans who laid out and grappled with programs of personal improvement and who have some things to teach us when we make our own resolutions.

‘To the Glory of God’

Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758), a theologian and revivalist preacher during the Great Awakening who is best known for his sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” often pondered “poor human nature.” Perhaps with these musings in mind, Edwards penned 70 resolutions as a young man of 18 and 19, not for New Year’s but as a lifelong guide to help him look to God in all things.

In this long list are two particular points to bear in mind when composing our own resolutions.

Edwards began with this command to himself: “Remember to read these resolutions once a week.”

We can follow this advice by posting our Jan. 1 resolutions in some prominent place, such as the refrigerator door or the bathroom mirror. Dr. Shah recommends encouraging a friend or a family member to join us on this trek. If nothing else, we can ask someone to ask after our progress from time to time.

Edwards also recorded as his very first resolution the fundamental purpose for the inventory that follows: “Resolved, That I will do whatsoever I think to be most to the glory of God, and my own good, profit, and pleasure, in the whole of my duration; without any consideration of the time, whether now, or never so many myriads of ages hence.”

Like him, we need to keep the main objective of our pledge in mind.

On the other hand, we must keep in mind that Edwards’s 70 resolutions were for a lifetime. For New Year’s vows, Dr. Shah recommends “making resolutions easy and achievable and starting off by making small steps.” He and others who have studied the making and breaking of resolutions also suggest keeping them as specific as possible. Some of Edwards’s resolutions fail that test.

No. 45, for instance, reads, “Never to allow any pleasure or grief, joy or sorrow, nor any affection at all, nor any degree of affection, nor any circumstance relating to it, but what helps religion.”

If obeyed at all times, that injunction would consume most of our waking hours.

Tackling the Virtues

Benjamin Franklin devised a list of 13 virtues that he sought to live by. Biba Kayewich

Ben Franklin (1706–1790), a contemporary of Edwards, also famously devised a list of resolutions when young—he was 20 years old—but his program differed from that of the evangelist. He limited his list to 13 virtues, all of which were both traditional and secular in nature. He characteristically regarded this attempt at self-improvement as an experiment, not only striving to fulfill his vows but also standing aside and impartially observing his progress.

Short and concise, Franklin’s 13 virtues read like the maxims he later delivered in his annual “Poor Richard’s Almanac.” Of Justice, for example, he wrote: “Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty.”

Franklin’s original list is made up of only 12 precepts, but when a Quaker friend urged him to work on his humility, Franklin added that virtue. Here, his directions to himself were the most succinct of all: “Imitate Jesus and Socrates.”

For a time, Franklin kept a record of his progress in this venture. Later, when larger affairs distracted him, he still carried his memorandum book with him. In his “Autobiography,” he devoted several pages to this experiment in self-improvement and concluded that although he never perfected himself, his attempts had improved his life and his fortunes. His comments regarding his struggles with humility reveal both his honesty and his humor. Of pride, he wrote, “Disguise it, struggle with it, beat it down, stifle it, mortify it as much as one pleases, it is still alive, and will every now and then peep out and show itself; you will see it, perhaps, often in this history; for, even if I could conceive that I had completely overcome it, I should probably be proud of my humility.”

Like Franklin, we can set down our goals in clear, precise language, keep track of our progress, and evaluate our performance, looking for ways to improve.

A Final Takeaway

Between the resolutions of these two men and ours today, there is one enormous difference. For 2024, the top three resolutions for Americans were to save more money, exercise more, and eat healthier meals. Although both Edwards and Franklin would have applauded these—they included similar practical goals in their pledges for a lifetime—their chief desire was for moral improvement. Edwards sought sanctity and a closeness to God; Franklin wanted virtue.

Those planning New Year’s resolutions for 2025 might consider adding some similar vows to their list. We can still promise ourselves to lose some weight or to put some money aside while also pledging to bring a little good to the world and to ourselves. Keeping Dr. Shah’s advice to keep it simple close at hand, we could begin by dusting off something as basic as the slogan of the Boy Scouts, “Do a good turn daily.” That good turn can run from helping an older neighbor shovel snow from her sidewalk to calling a friend going through hard times.

In all instances, as Franklin wrote in his notes to himself, “resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve.”

Good luck, and a Happy New Year to all!