As the new year approaches, many of us will be compiling our New Year’s resolutions, a tradition that dates back to 2000 B.C. in ancient Babylon. The Babylonians held their New Year’s celebrations during a 12-day festival called Akitu which began with the first new moon after the vernal equinox, usually in what is now March. Their New Year began with the beginning of their farming season. One common resolution from their agricultural-based society was the return of borrowed farm equipment. The ancient Romans adopted this Babylonian celebration along with the tradition of New Year’s resolutions. In 46 B.C., the Romans reformed the calendar year and created the Julian calendar which was named after Roman dictator Julius Caesar. The Julian calendar officially set January 1st as the New Year’s Day.
In more recent history, people have shifted their resolutions away from returning borrowed farm equipment to what has become the most popular New Year’s resolution of all, improved fitness. When 29-year-old Jeane Mortenson sat down in the winter of 1955 and scribbled her extensive list of resolutions for the upcoming year on the first page of her Gucci address book, she focused mainly on her career. Jeane was in the midst of a very successful career, but she was unhappy. In the margin, probably as an afterthought, Jeane scribbled, “Try to enjoy myself when I can – I’ll be miserable enough as it is.”
While most people list a maximum of three resolutions, Jeane detailed 11 resolutions. Her first four resolutions dealt with going to classes in her career field. Her first resolution was, “go to class – my own always – without fail.” Another resolution showed her determination toward her craft. She wrote, “go as often as possible to observe…other private classes.” She continued, “keep looking around me – only much more so – observing – but not only myself but others and everything – take things (it) for what they (it’s) are worth.” In her list, she made notes on correcting certain aspects of her life. She wrote, “must make strong effort to work on current problems and phobias that out of my past has arisen – making much much much more more more more more effort in my analisis [sic]. And be there always on time – no excuses for being ever late.” Jeane resolved to take at least one class in literature and to take dancing lessons. While most of our lists of New Year’s resolutions would begin with improving physical health, that was last on Jeane’s list. She scribbled, “take care of my instrument – personally & bodily (exercise).”
Despite Jeane’s seemingly constant feeling of miserableness, her list of New Year’s resolutions allows us to see how determined she was to make the most of the opportunities she had earned or had been given. By the time she scribbled these New Year’s resolutions in December of 1955, Jeane had appeared in 26 films, she had become a star, and there were several more films to come. On February 23, 1956, just two months after she scribbled her New Year’s resolutions, Jeane legally changed her name to the one she used in her professional career. Jeane ultimately became more than a star; she became a pop culture icon. Everyone knows Norma Jeane Mortenson as Marilyn Monroe.
Sources:
1. Catherine Boeckmann, “The Interesting History Behind New Year’s Resolutions,” The Old Farmer’s Almanac, Almanac.com, December 17, 2025, accessed December 21, 2025, almanac.com/history-of-new-years-resolutions.
2. “Marilyn Monroe’s Go-Getter List of New Year’s Resolutions (1955),” Open Culture, January 1, 2015, accessed December 21, 2025, openculture.com/2015/01/marilyn-monroes-go-getter-list-of-new-years-resolutions-1955.html.
3. “Marilyn Monroe,” ImDB.com, accessed December 21, 2025, imdb.com/name/nm0000054/?ref_=fn_t_1.
