NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTION: Fading Habit

It was a tradition—a yearly assignment—for teachers to ask students to write and bring with them in school as the classes resume after the Christmas break their written New Year’s resolution. I used doing it dutifully from my grade school until I finally got used to it being broken the rest of the year.

Aren’t we all?

It is very easy to identify weaknesses—negative attitudes—that ought to be corrected. And most of the time faster to write it down under the ‘new-year’s resolution’ list at the first day of the promising new hope that just sprung. But how many had really executed those words scrambled in the list as the year progress and come to another end…another year will come—another list of resolutions not even bothering to evaluate which from the previous years had been achieved.

Believe me, looking back to the list written a year or two, frustration would just shock many of us to realize we just keep on rewriting the same resolutions every year. In different wordings maybe but the same roots; the same negative traits we of how many times had attempted to eradicate.

Until I stopped writing mine, at least in New Year. Change does not need to be done in just the beginning of the year anyway. It should be anytime—as soon as the realization for a need to change knocks the door of our hearts. Why wait for the New Year’s Eve?

I am not against the tradition of course. I think it is quite healthy to evaluate at least once a year and think of the things we want to attain for the new hopeful 365 days. It is an assessing exercise to see ourselves more objectively than the usual biased self analysis on the rest of the year. You will agree though that it would be healthier to keep those written commitment for self improvement—to be a truly better person.

What is saddening was that the tradition had been long taken for granted by many. But with still few exceptions, I believe—I salute those unknowns who still value their pledges. If only everyone will do, this world will be a wholly better place more and more each year. But it does not—a palpable evident of forsaken habit.

The practice of writing resolutions keeps the ball rolling in the glimpse of new hope each year but its essence will be useless unless the inertia the motion had made will continue until it finds the finish line—a never-easy task; a challenge to keep promises made to oneself. If you do not really mean a change or planning to give it some efforts but just for the sake of bluffing that you had written one, don’t bother—save your dignity by not breaking more promises.

Words are valuable more than we can fathom and there is no worst offense than breaking your promises for yourself. So again, I salute those who still do their list and manage to keep them. ‘dLS