With the new year upon us, many of us have decided to pursue certain goals, often called New Year’s Resolutions. In the United States, this tradition of making New Year’s resolutions is huge. In much of the world, it is also rather popular. In Russia, well, its more like New Year’s wishes.

Losing weight, quitting smoking, changing jobs, finding love, and the list goes on and on. These are all typical examples of the types of resolutions that people in America make. There is nothing wrong with these at all but they are a bit different from what Russians might “wish” for. In many cases, Russians don’t make “resolutions” at all. Instead, they may “wish” good things to people and to themselves. Russians would be more comfortable wishing someone happiness, good health, to find romance or love, and things like that. In some cases, these are the things they also wish as they make a toast at a meal. They might also say to themselves that they might “wish” to purchase a car, take a vacation, or something like that.

Russia Beyond the Headlines polled some locals in Moscow about what they hope to accomplish in 2015 and some of the answers were interesting. I was surprised because the people were asked what their New Year’s resolutions were – perhaps it is becoming more popular. One man stated that he wanted to stop moaning and to not give in to panic. Another wished to pay off part of a mortgage. A young lady was resolved to begin a new life by going to Ireland. This same lady also wanted to begin learning to speak French – she could indeed have a very interesting year. Another person stated that they’d like to start to live well and to avoid bad deeds. These are all very admirable and to some extent, achievable; however, they are missing something.

These “wishes” are usually not backed up with a plan that would allow them a better chance of coming to fruition. In America, it is very popular to make a New Year’s resolution to lose weight. I have seen many women make this one. As a result of making this type of resolution, she might join a gym or club, enroll in a weight-loss program, or buy a piece of fitness equipment, or buy a bunch of heathy frozen dinners. The point is, she made a resolution and then took some sort of action. Though I have read that most New Year’s resolutions get broken, sometimes before the end of the week, at least people often take some sort of action. Russian people make “wishes” with good intentions, but with no real intention on doing what needs to be done to make the “wish” come true. I suppose that’s why they are often called New Year’s wishes instead of resolutions.