People & Their Problems

New Delhi, 5 January 2015

New Year 2015

DO WE NEED RESOLUTIONS?

By Mithun Dey

Come New Year’s and the mind starts ticking about making fresh resolutions. In fact, many people would have made such resolutions throughout their lives. Yet, practically nearly every resolution may end up being broken in a short period or only a few accomplished. Why is there this breakdown in achieving resolutions so common?

It all starts in late December, when a list of goals they had tried to achieve last year but didn’t accomplish is made: quit smoking, chewing betel-nut, drink less alcohol et al. On day one of the New Year, 1 January, many would be sure they would be successful in fulfilling their list of New Year’s resolutions this time. But by the middle of February, they find themselves drinking heavily, smoking a pack of cigarettes a day, and even taking more betel-nut than before. They learned that human “steam,” or willpower, were not adequate to drive their mind and body to comply with their desire to change.

Regardless of how positive they had been about accomplishing their goals, they had again failed to achieve their resolutions for the year and were back in the same destructive behavior that they were so accustomed to. Why this recurring certainty for most people today? Why the enveloping lack of control in conquering problems such as alcoholism, smoking, consuming an unhealthy diet, lethargicness, gambling, lying, etc.? Furthermore, why the sudden urge for people to try to make changes in their lives at this one point of the year?

One of the most familiar resolutions in ancient Babylon was to return all borrowed farming equipment. Moreover, depending on the cultures and traditions, various gods were worshipped on that day and asked to bless the upcoming year. From these early customs, the tradition of New Year’s resolutions was passed down through generations, becoming the tradition that so many participate in today.

Ironically, some set out to overcome a problem in a day or two, though they have expended a vast amount of time establishing the bad habit. These goals are broken shortly after being made since it is not very easy to change one’s negative attributes and because there is a missing element in the person’s life. Why is it so hard for people to change their habits and achieve success in their resolutions? Because old habits die hard!

At some point in life, each one of us may have had to address a bad habit. Most understand how hard it can be to conquer such destructive habits. Habitually, the individual will not even recognize the habit until someone brings it to his attention and removing these subtleties from one’s daily schedule is a struggle.

Correspondingly, New Year’s resolutions are desires to instantly conquer certain habits that have possibly taken years to establish. This is very difficult to achieve. Truly, overcoming is a lifelong struggle and since change is intolerable and sometimes even painful, most people avoid it. For those who do try to change, an inadvertent slip-up is sometimes viewed as total failure, instead of an opportunity to learn, cultivate and to strive harder to succeed. This mindset, instinctively, is a pretext for the person to return to familiarity—his bad habit.

Why do people make “changes” at just one time of the year? Why do they return to their old habits, deciding to try again next year? Why do people go after each other’s lead in failure—not questioning their true intent and beliefs or the traditions they follow? The answer to these questions is the same: because it is an easy alternative!

Hence, this year 2015, it would have been best not to make any resolutions and instead do something different. The past New Years have been left behind. Today, all around us we have murderers, rapists, robbers, child molesters, terrorists etc. Corruption is a major problem and one of the key deterrents of development. This apart, religion is becoming a contentious issue. What all then should the people resolve about?

Do we really need ‘New Year’s resolutions’? In a year, there are 52 weeks, 12 months or 365 days. John Ruskin who was the leading English art critic of the Victorian era, a prominent and social thinker once quoted, “Let every dawn of morning be to you as the beginning of life, and every setting sun be to you as its close.”  Every moment is a gift and each new sight is a wonder. Each new day is a blank page in the diary of one’s life. Instead of making resolutions every New Year, do it every day. New Year is nothing but just a change of the calendar year.

Let’s change how we speak about people. Let’s change our society. We should make our nation great. We have to do something completely different to change the system. We need to work hard with focus and dedication in our every day journey of struggles. We don’t need to change the calendar. In a New Year, we must have new ears through which one can listen to a soft and lovely messages and a new mouth through which he or she can spread a beautiful note for the nation.  Swami Vivekananda once quoted, “In a day, when you don't come across any problems - you can be sure that you are travelling in a wrong path”.

No need to make promise for the New Year. The habit of making strategies, of carping, endorsing and moulding your life, are too much for a day or so. The New Year is like a blank paper and we must put words on the pages. And the first episode is ‘New Year’. Each day and in every moment, we all could change ourselves for a better nation. Very few people who make daily resolutions adhere to these, but that is hardly the point. In our life, we must learn to rely on ourselves and the connections we have within ourselves to keep our everyday resolutions alive.

What a fascinating, modern age we are in! But, what’s left for us to do?  Now, we are looking for a radically new world which will take a shape from the ashes of yesterday’s nation based economic world. We need to look at the entire economic and civic model and find a way to change it. Let’s act all together for our nation. Let’s start the year 2015 with being perfectly honest. Let's not make ourselves better alone, but the world too.  ---INFA

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)