Are you the sort of person who, like most of us, reaches the end of each year with a huge sigh of relief and can’t wait to start the next one in the fervent hope and belief that it will be better than the outgoing year?
It’s only natural to feel that way as a New Year has always been symbolic of a new beginning, hence the dynamic of New Year’s Resolutions. At the beginning of each year, we are pumped up with energy and intent about how to make positive changes to our lives, however small these changes may be (for example, eating less sugar, or spending less time glued to our mobile phones). We draw up a list of resolutions that we are going to action in the New Year that will improve ourselves. This list is a personal brief of good intentions for the next 365 days. But then, you may notice that as the days and weeks pass, you haven’t implemented the intentions yet, or that you started off with a bang but seem to be fading fast in that regard.
This realization inevitably leads to a feeling of disappointment in oneself. You might find yourself thinking, “Oh gosh, I can’t even stick to my new resolutions for a week! I am useless!” or “What’s the point of starting now?” It’s a bit like being on a diet, when you start out raring to go with the genuine intent of losing weight, but then when you commence the diet, you find that it’s not that easy to stick to it and your resolution starts to seriously wane.
Well, there is great news on three fronts. The first is that you are most certainly not useless and the second is that, as Scarlett O’Hara says in the final scene of the classic Hollywood film, Gone With The Wind: “After all, tomorrow is another day.” In other words, just because you haven’t already done something doesn’t mean you can’t start tomorrow, or preferably even today. And it also means, very importantly, that you can keep on trying to try.
The third bit of good news is that good intentions are just that – good. They are positive manifestations of thought and, when turned into actions – boom! – they are all the better.
So, as you can see, there is absolutely no need to beat yourself over the head if you find yourself falling short of your New Year’s resolutions. I mean, let’s face it, daily life is quite a struggle given all the challenges that we human beings face on a continual basis. The reality is that each new year is effectively a collection of dates on the calendar that denote the earth’s passage around the sun, as in spring, summer, autumn and winter. New Year’s Day was just another day, just as today or tomorrow is just another day. Can you honestly say your felt different a few days before New Year compared to how you feel now?
Just out of interest, I found a fascinating article about the history of New Year’s resolutions on The History Channel website, which notes that New Year’s resolutions are believed to have first come into existence some 4,000 years ago, when the ancient Babylonians made annual promises to their pagan gods. The Babylonians believed that if they fulfilled their promises, the gods would bestow favours upon them.
The History Channel article also states that the early Christians traditionally used the first day of the New Year to contemplate their past mistakes and resolve to do and be better in the future. Read the full article.
One’s mind is always full of so many things – getting the children to school, yourself to work, work projects and deadlines, what to prepare for dinner, monthly accounts, activities to be planned for the family. Sometimes it just seems too much to manage.
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