New year, new you – or so the saying goes. Our regular columnist Molly Quell wonders why the Dutch don’t seem to set many New Year’s Resolutions. 

“People Are Sharing Their Frugal New Year’s Resolutions For 2025, And My Wallet And My Brain Really Needed This” says the Buzzfeed headline.

NPR, American public radio, went with: “New Year’s resolution ideas: 25 fun and practical goals to reach for in 2025” while the New York Times opted for: “How to Future-Proof Your Happiness in the New Year.” CNN chose for the investigative: “The ancient origins of New Year’s resolutions and how the tradition has changed.”

Even the Brits got into the fun. “I know how to fix new year’s resolutions – and it could change everything” was the Guardian’s take.

The Dutch have less interest in the matter. The last NOS story on “goede voornemens” dates from 2016. The Volkskrant ran an interactive story about setting intentions complete with fun graphics.

“Januari is voor veel mensen de maand om je leven weer een beetje beter te maken,” it opens, or “For many people, January is the month to make your life a little better again.”

How to make your life a little better? None of this future-proofing your happiness nonsense. Just a bit of sensible advice for some incremental adjustments.

The Dutch are just too pragmatic for resolutions. These are not people who dramatically alter their lives on a whim. Just make a little change. Doe normaal.

You know who does want you to make plans? ETOS, and Albert Heijn. Both of them provide a list of ideas for New Year’s Resolutions and then link to various products you can purchase from them to make those resolutions happen.

Oh and coaches want you to make some resolutions. (Side note: Why does this country have so many coaches?) The first resolution is to hire them to improve your life.

Actually they are slightly more subtle. Hiring them is usually towards the bottom of the list, after a bunch of generic and nearly identical basic life advice.

The Dutch may be pragmatic but they also like to make money.

Perhaps it is a different Dutch attitude that explains the lack of interest in New Year’s Resolutions. The Dutch aren’t too pragmatic for resolutions, they just see themselves as exceptional and therefore not in need of resolving anything.

In fairness, the Netherlands does do a lot of things well. The Dutch are generally healthy and happy, live longer and have a higher standard of living than most of the rest of the world. (Which they will tell you if given any opportunity to do so.)

But there is certainly room for some improvements. The NS could set itself a goal to stick to the schedule it sets for itself. PostNL could set itself a goal to actually deliver my packages. The government could try to make just one policy that doesn’t violate the constitution, international law or both.

I haven’t integrated enough so I did set some goals for 2025. Read the books I already own. Make more fresh pasta. Finally catch up on my podcast subscriptions.

Look, these are at least more pragmatic than trying to future proof my happiness.

While the Netherlands as a whole may be broadly dismissive of resolutions, Brabant appears to be especially unimpressed at the idea of “new year new you.”

This local paper interviewed a bunch of people at a McDonalds in the municipality of Etten-Leur, who did not have time for this nonsense.

“Good intentions? We don’t do that. Because if you don’t start, it can’t end badly,” one lady told the paper and then ordered chicken nuggets.

Maybe more of us should embrace that attitude in 2025.