Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC, and now to round out the show today, since we're approaching the end of January, we ask, are New Year's resolution still a thing? According to a CBS poll, 29% of Americans said they would be making New Year's resolutions going into this year, just 29%, a dramatic drop from 43%, just a year ago. If you made one and kept it so far, we now invite you to brag about it on the radio, 212-433-WNYC.

Or if you decided omacron overtook any impulse toward resolutions, you might have had right at that moment, right around New Year's when it was really peaking. Tell us that. Or if you have tried and failed already by this day of January 27th, tell us that too. Tweet @BrianLehrer, or give us a call at 212-433-WNYC. 212-433-9692. Did you forgo New Year's resolutions this year when you might otherwise have made them? Did you make one and stick to it? Or did you make one and not?

This year may be even tougher than ever to stick to your goals, if you think about it. If you want to be active, the omicron surge may be impeding on your goal to finally get back to the gym. If you want to save money, well, the child tax credit has ended. COVID unemployment benefits are over, and federal student loans are lurking around the corner to start up again.

Maybe your resolutions this year don't look very traditional. Do you have a unique or inventive, can we say Omicron era New Year's resolution that you've been following this month? 212-433-WNYC. 212-433-9692. Or tweet @BrianLehrer. Give you a little background speaking of tradition. New year's resolutions, from what I read, go way back to the Romans, and over the centuries, they typically weren't about losing weight or saving money, which might be the big two these days. The goal was, according to a 23rd teen article in the Atlantic, just to be a better person, apparently. Resolutions from the early 20th century ranged from swearing less, to having a more cheerful disposition, to recommitting to God, quoting from the Atlantic.

Maybe your resolutions for this year are gentler, like keeping a gratitude journal, or checking in on your loved ones more frequently. Maybe your goals are smaller, like you want to stretch every day, or make your bed every morning, if you're working from home. If you scale down your resolutions, tell us about them, and if you're stuck to them.

Anne in Carroll Gardens, you're on WNYC. Hi, Anne.

Anne: Hi. Nice to talk to you. This is amazing.

Brian Lehrer: It's amazing for me. What's it got?

Anne: I am so proud of my husband and I for actually sticking to dry January. It's been hard, a lot of pandemic wine before that, but we really needed the construct of dry January to go for it, and we did it. We're doing it.\\

Brian Lehrer: Did you do dry January any year in the past, or did the pandemic really change this for you?

Anne: The pandemic, it was all too much. It was all getting too crazy. I think it was this particular moment in time that really made us go for it. Yes, not a good resolution keeper otherwise, but it really worked.

Brian Lehrer: You made it to January 27. Thank you very much. Keep it up.

Julia in Beacon. You're on WNYC. Hi, Julia.

Julia: Hi, Brian. It's so nice to talk to you. I've been a listener almost my whole life, since I was a kid.

Brian Lehrer: So glad you're on.

Julia: My only resolution this year was to take the word lazy out of my vocabulary, because I only ever use it against myself. I had Omicron over the holiday break, and it was a time when rest was just really needed, and I needed to isolate and rest as much as possible to get better. I just realized, with the constant grinding of our culture, it's so hard for us to rest, and I really only use that to shame myself, and I wouldn't to anybody else. I'm not doing myself any favors by using that word internally. I'm just going to take it out of my vocabulary, and it's been hard. I'll admit.

Brian Lehrer: Are you going to work less at the same time?

Julia: [chuckles] No. That's the thing, is the productivity stays exactly the same. It's only the words.

Brian Lehrer: Julia, thank you so much.

Julia: Thank you.

Brian Lehrer: By the way, this year, to the point that I was making at the beginning of the intro, a lot of people have actually been vocally opposed to making resolutions. Maybe that's one of the reasons that the rate has apparently gone down. Journalist Faith Hill wrote in the Atlantic, resolutions are not the vibe for 2022. On Twitter, one user writes, forget a New Year's resolution. If the years aren't improving, why should I? That's a little of the anti New Year's resolution vibe out there.

How about Darcy in Forest Hills. Darcy, you're on WNYC. Hi there.

Darcy: Hi, Brian. I love your show. I'm so excited to be on. I don't usually make resolutions, but this year I decided to do an apple a day just because keeping the doctor away seemed like a good pandemic theme, and it gave me something small to do every day to just think about, oh, I'm keeping my New Year's resolution. Here's my apple.

Brian Lehrer: Be careful or you're going give the anti-vaxers a new mantra. They're going to say, "Oh, well, an apple a day keeps the virus away. Didn't you know?"

Darcy: I'm also boosted, just FYI.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you, Darcy.

Todd in Brooklyn. You're on WNYC. Hi, Todd.

Todd: Hi, Brian. How are you?

Brian Lehrer: Good.

Todd: I have to thank you. I have to thank you guys for my New Year's resolution. I've been doing Morning Pages since the beginning of the year, and it's been wonderful. It's really working out for me.

Brian Lehrer: Oh, that's the Julia Cameron exercise from the artist's way. We had her on the show just before the New Year.

Todd: Yes. I was working my day--

Brian Lehrer: Talk about how you-- Go ahead. No, go ahead.

Todd: Go ahead. I was working my day job, when I was sick of the CD. I worked by myself, and I was sick of the music I was listening to, so I turned it off, and at that moment, Julia was on. I've been struggling to write a novel for the past year, and Morning Pages has been a real revelation for me. I get up at 4:00, and I work for as long as I can. My daughter usually begins to stir around 5:30, 6 o'clock, so I can get about 600 to 700 words in.

Brian Lehrer: That's pretty good.

Todd: 700 words times like 30 days, that's a lot of words. More than I ever written in that.

Brian Lehrer: That's a lot of words. That exercise of writing in the morning. Do you find yourself writing certain kinds of things, and then benefiting from them in certain ways afterwards?

Todd: What she says about, when you get up early like that and write long hand, and you don't put any limitations on yourself, you really-- I find once you start writing, your brain will go places that, in the past for me, I didn't always-- if my brain was going somewhere interesting, I didn't always follow it, but that's not the case with Morning Pages. As I said, it's been a real revelation for me. Thank you so much for that segment.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you so much for thanking me. I'm glad that you got something from that.

Claire in Brooklyn, you're on WNYC. Hi, Claire.

Claire: Hi, Brian. First time caller, long time listener. Thanks so much for taking my call.

Brian Lehrer: Glad you're on. I see that-- I'm looking at the board, Claire, you and the other people we've had on already, this idea that nobody's making New Year's resolutions, it's not true in our listenership.

Claire: Yes. [laughs] I think so. One, I would like to get my pre pandemic grit back. I feel like just being in my apartment for the past few years, just feeling a little bit soft in terms of determination and a couple of different categories. That's one, and then also to learn about crypto, and educate myself on things like NFTs. People are making a lot of money. I feel like there's a gender divide, so doing as much education for myself as I can.

Brian Lehrer: Do you have a quick take on the like 50% drop in cryptocurrency values over the last couple of weeks?

Claire: [laughs] I don't have a hot take, still educating myself to understand everything that's going on. It's a lot.

Brian Lehrer: Claire, thank you. Have a great year. Call us again.

Mary in Point Pleasant, you're at WNYC. Hi, Mary.

Mary: Hi, good morning, Brian. Last year, I made New Year's resolution to send a piece of correspondence every Monday in the mail for the 52 weeks of the year to somebody, anybody, family member, friend, somebody I hadn't spoken to in years, just to try to cheer up their week when they went to their mailbox. This year, I decided to go bagless. Wherever I go, whether it's Home Depot or Target or Walmart or Trader Joe's, I will not accept any bags at all. If I haven't brought one, I have to fill my pockets with what I purchased.

Brian Lehrer: That's a very good, environmentally sound one. Does it apply to, I don't know, if you're ordering in a lot of things like a lot of people are during the pandemic?

Mary: No, I do not order in at all. No, I either do without or I go to the market, and when I go to the market, like I said, I bring a bag, and if I have forgotten a bag, I just take everything in my hands, and I am reminded that I cannot purchase a lot if I have no bags.

Brian Lehrer: Mary, that's okay.

Mary: [chuckles] That's not on the expense and the needless things that you purchase.

Brian Lehrer: That's a good one for everybody. Thank you very much.

Lisa, in Manhattan on the Upper West Side, has a good one.

Lisa: Yes.

Brian Lehrer: Hi, Lisa.

Lisa: Hello, Brian. What a pleasure. I love your show. I've been listening forever and ever, and donating on a regular basis.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you.

Lisa: Yes. I refuse to worry, and it is a practice. I have a business, and of course with all the illness and that sort of thing, and people you love being sick, et cetera., et cetera., and just the general things that are going on in the world with climate change and homelessness, et cetera., et cetera., it's a big chunk for us to carry on our shoulders. I decided that when I start worrying, when I find myself worrying about something, it's all well and good to say, "Oh, you know, worry doesn't change anything," which is actually true, but to be able to stop it, to take a moment and say, "Can I fix this? Can I do anything to ameliorate this at this moment?" If I can, I go do it. Like I've been worrying about something I didn't follow up on. I go follow up on it. Then I don't worry about it anymore.

Brian Lehrer: Yes. That's good that you detach those two because what me worry doesn't mean don't do anything.

Lisa: Yes, it doesn't mean be passive. It doesn't mean to be apathetic. I have this little thing where I pat the back of my head like my mother used to do when I was a child, and I do it myself, just like two strokes in the back of my head and I say, "Honey, I refuse to worry. I refuse. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for giving me fear when it's important, but fear is not important now."

Brian Lehrer: Lisa, thank you so much.

To the self-improvement-oriented Brian Lehrer Show listenership, that obviously has no shortage of New Year's resolutions, we could have kept going and going with your calls. Thank you for your calls.

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