You can throw away most of your affirmations and New Year promises. They won't work.
If we look at them through the strict lens used by Immanuel Kant, most affirmations and New Year promises would not qualify as genuine self-legislation. But the reason is slightly different from what people usually think.
The main issue is not that they come from imagination. Kant would actually accept imagination as a starting point for forming ideas about how one might live. The problem appears at the testing stage. Most affirmations or resolutions never undergo the rational test that Kant requires, whether the principle behind the promise is coherent, stable, and capable of guiding action consistently.
Take a typical resolution like “This year I will become more productive.” That is not a law in Kant’s sense because it is vague, situational, and dependent on mood. It contains no clear principle that could be applied universally or even consistently by the same person across time. It is more like a wish than a rule.
Another common example is “I will wake up early every day starting January 1st.” Again, Kant would not reject the idea of waking early. He would question the structure of the rule. Why exactly? Under what conditions? For what rational purpose? If the answer is symbolic motivation, imitation of others, or a temporary surge of enthusiasm, then the rule lacks grounding. It is not anchored in a principle that reason recognizes as necessary.
Many such promises collapse because they originate in imagination without passing through rational filtering. They feel convincing in the moment because imagination can simulate a future version of oneself acting differently. Unfortunately imagination does not change the mechanisms that actually produce behavior, which are habits, schedules, constraints, and energy patterns. Kant’s framework exposes that gap. In his view, a rule only becomes binding when the person recognizes that the principle behind it must hold regardless of current mood or convenience. Without that recognition, the promise remains a psychological event rather than a law of conduct.
However, throwing them all away would miss something important. Some resolutions can become legitimate rules if they are reformulated into a principle that passes the test. For example, instead of “I will transform my life this year,” the rule might become something like when I commit to an activity that requires uninterrupted thinking, I will structure my day so that this activity receives protected time. That kind of rule can survive examination because it has a clear reason and can be applied consistently.
So the real Kantian move is not simply rejecting affirmations but filtering them. Most fail, but occasionally one survives once it is clarified and grounded. Imagination can propose possibilities, but only reasoning can decide whether a rule deserves authority over your actions.
