Saturday, August 5, 2017

2. New Year Resolutions

There is something common between New Year Resolutions and Election promises. Both are made with a lot of gusto but remain largely unfulfilled. Yet, we deliberate seriously on what resolution to adopt for the new year, just as we look forward to what every party has to offer on the eve of an election!

I would like to share my own experiences on new year resolutions.

I always consider the birth of a new year as an opportunity to set, reset and modify my goals. So, I adopt resolutions promising myself what I would do and what I would stop doing in the new year. The first thing I do to receive a new year is to buy a diary (if nobody presents me with one!) and record the resolutions mentally passed by me already. Don't experts say we have to write down our goals if we want to achieve them?

Incidentally, I also renew my habit of writing diaries every year. I have to renew this because this refuses to develop into a habit. People say habits die hard. But my habit of writing diaries dies an early death every year. In fact it dies before it attains the status of a habit! But I am proud to say that writing a diary has a longer life than have new year resolutions.

To be fair to myself, I do not entirely forget new year resolutions. I remember them quite often. In fact, I remember them every time I violate them! I have tried to analyze why I have not been able to keep my new year resolutions. And I have found the reason. Every year starts as a new year but becomes old after a week or two, at any rate after a month. Since there is no longer any new year, the new year resolutions also cease to exist. So, I am not at fault for not keeping my new year resolutions!

A friend of mine wrote a book on how to succeed in life. (I learnt much later that if there is one thing that anyone can do, it is writing a book on how to be successful. The beauty is you don't have to be successful to write a book on success. After all, you are only advising others. Just as people who smoke a lot will assertively advise others not to smoke, people who can't succeed can also advise others about achieving success!) It was an interesting book outlining the steps you should take to achieve success. It is as easy as saying one, two three. You should have reached success when you counted three. Otherwise, read the book again!

Since I knew that my friend cannot even be remotely called a successful man, I asked him how he could write such a book. He divulged his secret to me. He said that the book was nothing but a compilation of all his new year resolutions which would have brought him success, if he had followed them.

New year resolutions are in some ways like our Government's five year plans. The goals are well set, the objectives are clearly defined and even the strategy is outlined in detail. But the plans themselves are never properly implemented. However, to be fair to our planners, I will concede that five year plans are implemented a little more seriously than new year resolutions.

One thing we should remember while making new year resolutions is that they should be kept within ourselves and should never be revealed to anyone, particularly to those who are close to us. The closer they are, the more secretive should we be. There are two reasons. One, we are likely to be discouraged by such people. They will mock at our resolutions and assert that we could never live by our resolutions. 'What happened when you decided ....?' More importantly, if we don't tell anyone about our new year resolutions, nobody is not going to know that we didn't implement them!

I have always made it a point to adopt one resolution at the beginning of every year. Though I have repeatedly failed in sticking to my new year resolutions, I have not given up.

For this new year also, I have adopted a resolution that I will never adopt any new year resolution in future!


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