Year 2019 is about to come to an end. Today is the time to assess our self-imposed resolutions for 2019 and check if indeed we need to have resolutions for the next year.
Making new year’s resolutions, individually and collectively, is such a pastime to welcome the coming of the new year with the belief that we can bring about change in us or in the way we deal with people, or the world, and the challenges that confront us.
More often than not, individuals have the tendency to stick to their new year’s resolutions at the start of the year, vacillate, then go back to their comfort zone.
Change is the only permanent thing on earth, time and again drilled into us. Why the is change difficult to achieve? What makes people successful in introducing change in their lives, or lives of others?
There are questions that we need to ask if we want to have meaningful change in our lives.
It takes discipline and belief in one’s own capacity to bring about change that can drive people to succeed in changing their behaviour, in the way they relate to others, in directing their lives, and most of all, in dealing with successes and challenges that come their way.
Resolutions are only guideposts which help us have a focus in the way we face the world, so supervening or intervening factors should be stepping stones to further our aims. However, if our resolutions become irrelevant due to these factors, then we simply discard them.
Behaviour that is maintained through time becomes a habit, and defines us in many ways. Thus, we are often enticed to go back to our old ways as we are not comfortable in changing our behaviour, simply being satisfied with what we currently do and have. Each of us have self-imposed goals and objectives in life aside from the ways and means on how are we going to achieve such goals that form part of our annual new year’s resolutions, in case we have.
Having self-imposed new year’s resolutions for every year is not actually bad because such resolutions are guideposts towards our life goals. They help us put things in the right perspective as we strive to achieve the best for us and our families. What is important for us is to have the consistency in fulfilling our self-imposed new year’s resolutions from the start up to the end of the year. These then become the building blocks to higher goals, higher resolve to make thing better for us and others.
Let us use every year to challenge ourselves to do what we know will be best for us in every aspect of our daily lives. Let us not allow the degree of difficulty in fulfilling such resolutions to be a deterrent in not being able to achieve our goals in life but let such resolutions serve as inspiration and motivation for us to do what we know will be the best for us.
As we welcome the coming of year 2020, let us reflect on our mistakes and correct the same, replicate our successes, and let all these lessons serve as our initial new year’s resolution. As the year progresses, we can revise our resolutions or discard them. Otherwise, seize the day. Appreciate each day that comes and resolve to be better than yesterday. That would be the most practical daily resolution through all times. May 2020 bring peace in your hearts, home and communities, food on your table, opportunities for serving others, and secure livelihoods and well-being for all!