Why do we even bother to make New Year’s resolutions? Do they make us seem like people with dreams and ambitions, or do we make resolutions just because everybody else around us makes them as a custom at the start of each year?
Why are we so prone to make promises that we always fail to keep no matter how hard we try ÔÇô promises that we don’t even make an effort to try to keep?
It’s that time of the year again when one takes time to look back at the year rapidly coming to an end.
But for me, and I’m sure many others too, it’s that time when I look back with a shrug at that list of resolutions I had made because no matter how long and hard I try, I can never seem to stick to them.
Just look at your resolutions for this year.
There is the weight loss programme you were supposed to engage in but got so busy that you never quite got around to working out the planned three times a week.
Then there is that house you were going to buy come hell or high water but then your finances got side tracked by unforeseen circumstances and here you are still renting out that two and a half house that you so hate living in.
Oh yeah! Then there is the smoking and drinking you swore to quit that time you woke up with a hell of a hangover. However, work has just been so stressful that a few drags and a few cool ones at the end of the week were exactly what you needed to unwind and relax.
But next year for sure, you are going to stick to the resolutions you make even if it kills you, right?
I think Woody Allen put it best when he said if you want to make God laugh, tell him your future plans.
The rate at which this life zips by us is amazing; life is unpredictable makes planning for the future a very pointless thing to engage in. Yet we can’t just go about life like headless chickens with no direction or ideas of where we want to go and what we want to achieve. We must not beat ourselves up though if we fail to accomplish all we had set out to do.
So, instead of beating myself up over things I should have done but never did and projects I was supposed to complete, which I never even started on, I have decided that my reflection on the year 2011 will be on a celebratory note. Instead of focusing on the shoulda, coulda, woulda’s that clearly are not going to happen and dampen my moods by dwelling too much on them, I’m instead going to celebrate my successes.
I might not have gotten around to doing even one of the things I had sworn I would do at the beginning of the year but that does not change the fact that this has been a good year. I have accomplished so many other things that I never thought possible and had a few pleasant surprises along the way.
So what if you made resolutions but didn’t keep to them?
Stop beating yourself up and celebrate the life that you have. Besides, you have next year to try again. So next year, instead of making resolutions to do something, make one resolution, which is not to have any resolutions.
How about that?
