Ah, the beginning of a new year and a new decade. With this new page in the history books comes a lot of resolutions. People promise themselves they will lose weight, read more and get a better job, and that’s fantastic. The New Year’s resolution is in place for people to attempt to better themselves, and for that I salute them.
Me, I don’t really see the point of making a resolution. Generally, if I’m going to do something, I’ll just do it. Which leads me to the point: Why do people wait until the new year to promise themselves to lose weight or whatnot? As far as I see it, living a healthy life is an everyday prerogative. A person should encompass good habits not as a resolution for a while, but as a lifestyle.
The same goes for getting a job or changing something radically about one’s life. People are creatures of habit. We like a certain norm, a pattern of behaviors we follow comfortably.
People vow to change things about that norm, and from casual observation, I’ve noticed things like that just don’t happen. No one wants to disrupt a comfort cycle for any reason. So, when someone declares something radical, I pretty much expect failure. I know, that’s a very defeatist take on the New Year’s resolution, but it tends to be accurate.
My suggestions for resolutions would be simple things, such as trying to go for a jog once a week or read a book a month. Those are fairly easy actions to add to a busy college lifestyle. Those things will also suggest repetition. Jogging and reading tend to be activities that will beget themselves into one’s future.
For the people like me, good work. I think, and no offense to you, New Year’s resolutions are dumb.
Many great thinkers have proposed time is an illusion, with our calendar dates and holidays doubly enforcing that idea. See, time is relative. It’s an idea, given meaning by the people who believe in it. Our New Year isn’t corresponding to the Chinese New Year. In fact, the Chinese don’t even have a set date for the New Year celebration. They follow the idea each new year is based on complete lunar cycles.
It’s ideas like that cause dissension between different groups of people. Do you think the English celebrate the Fourth of July, our independence day? I’m sure they don’t. In fact, I feel that time of the year embitters some people who live there.
Our celebration is like a big “screw you” to the motherland, and I’m sure some of the people see it that way. The same thing goes for religious holidays. What I’m saying is, what’s the point of assigning so much value to such trivial things?
For people who actually do make New Year’s resolutions, power to you, just make sure you can keep your promise to yourself.
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