Resolutions has always seemed artificial and forced to me, especially
the New Year resolution. It seemed contrived because there is nothing in the
human behavioral set of rules that says that you have to renew yourself and
create these resolutions at the beginning of the calendar year.
First, because the calendar is a contrived mechanism created
to make humans able to track time in an easier manner. The fact that we are
following a solar calendar versus a lunar calendar makes the yearly resolution
seem even more contrived.
The act of writing and proclaiming a resolution is
contrived. Why is it that we feel the need to declare our intentions in a
formal way and written in a formal list. I know people who are very formal
about the idea, saying that this is a way to create a mechanism for our friends
to hold us accountable to what we had pledged. Indeed, if this is the case,
when does this not make our free will and discipline a joke? If we cannot have
the discipline to hold fast to our will then won’t we have greater issues with
ourselves than just a resolution?
Let us now look at the motivation for the resolution. Is it
a means to declare to our friends and loved ones what our intention is or is it
a way for us to call attention to what we are saying for selfish reasons? Is
the resolution just a means for publicly touting our own virtues? Is this not
just some form of bragging about our own purity of purpose? I don’t need to let
the world know I plan on abstaining from alcohol, I declare it to receive the
rewards of being so honest and forthright in the most public way possible.
Indeed, doesn’t our promise to our self to do whatever it is
that we wish to aspire to mean more to ourselves rather than to others? If that
is indeed the case, then the public declaration of the resolution is just so
much public show of our virtue and purity. Generally this is not a strong basis
for discipline and resilience. Hence the failure rate in upholding these
resolutions.
Make a resolution to yourself for yourself, let no one else
know. Your conscience will be clearer and you are truer to yourself. Making the
resolution public is pointless. Holding to your resolution to your own
standards while no one is looking is what we need to aim for.
