There’s plenty to wish for in the new year, but none any different from those we wished for last year or years before, except maybe a few more pounds off than last. Either way, it seems almost pointless to really make resolutions, particularly those we have no meaningful way of sustaining. So why do people do it?
Perhaps people like to have something to aspire to, and afford an opportunity to start over, be it realistic or not. It’s a mental state of reincarnation wherein one is allowed to reinvent what one have already attempted before, albeit without fruition. Not to demoralize or dismiss such futile behavior, providing hope where there might be none is nothing to poke fun at. It does provide people renewed incentive to start over and try yet again. Persistence and determination are key and essential in a well-rounded individual. However, like a child that has behaved badly, the punishment must end at some point for the child to behave badly again. The cycle needs to replicate in order to maintain the chaotic sanity of existence.
Some prefer to disregard and pooh pooh the notion of resolutions, preferring to treat it as another day in the 365 day cycle. This I can truly relate to. Why make resolutions you have no meaningful way of maintaining and no mechanism of sanctions if you should cheat? This seems like a formula designed to fail. No sanctions, no meaningful inclination to succeed, and no gatekeeper to dole out the pain and torture if you thwart the rules. Policing yourself has never been an effective mean of ensuring compliance and deterrence.
I have a friend in particular who likes to list all the things that friend would like to do differently in the new year. Last year it involved losing weight, making more money, and to be more positive. As idealistic as this may be, friend tend to follow true until mid February, when the flurry of making resolutions has died a cold, shivering death and all that’s left is torrential rain and expensive tight jeans. Friend resort to joining a gym and to forking out first month, last month, and initial processing fee so to lose the extra weight. Six months later and almost $600 poorer, friend has gone to the gym once, has resigned to just being happy with friend’s new weight and to buying new more luxurious jeans. Not to point a judgmental finger, but I could have predicted that in January.
The point is this, make resolutions daily. Make it realistic and manageable. I’d like to be super thin and super positive, but at the moment, I’d settle for deleting “super” from my vocabulary.
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