When did it become trendy to decry resolutions? The whole point of starting a new year, clean slate, calendar with no marks in it and no crossed-off days, is dreaming up ways to fill in those blank calendar days. I like New Year's Resolutions. I don't come to the end of the year and kick myself for not meeting them or forgetting about them; I come to the end of the year with the intention of trying again. In fact, it kind of seems to me that foregoing the resolution aspect of the New Year is a very bitter and jaded thing to do.
I'm a writer; I don't get bitter and jaded (much). Every new day brings a new idea and a new proposal, a new "This is it!" idea.
This year, I have a few different resolutions (unfashionable though they may be). I unapologetically resolve to lose weight, to go to water aerobics more regularly, to focus on writing and knitting and my loved ones.
What about you?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
I agree wholeheartedly. I like having some resolutions, it's similar to making a list. You feel you're already on the way to achieving something.
I tend to put them together throughout January, rather than on the first though, and the annual one about losing weight has to be posponed until after mid-February when it's my birthday and I usually go to Italy. Diets and Italian food are NOT compatible.
I also have seventeen writing resolutions, one of which is more-or-less impossible, one I've already done, and the rest should be achievable in the first half of the year.
I've never personally liked resolutions--and this goes back yeeeeears. It's really only been this one I've seen a lot of people screaming they hate 'em.
It's always seemed pointless to me to resolve to do something that I realistically know there is very little chance of me doing. I'd rather look ahead, decide what I want from the coming year, and figure out the most realistic and efficient way to get it.
I wouldn't call myself bitter. Cynical, though? Hellyeah.
Well, there are realistic resolutions and unrealistic resolutions, but a resolution to do X isn't, by default, something unrealistic.
No, it's not, but the vast majority of people resolve to do things that aren't realistic. The underlying expectation people seem to have about resolutions is that they will fail and come back to the same thing the following year. When it's an almost cultural expectation, then failure is much more likely.
Certainly, there are people who keep their resolutions... but I would expect you'd find them in the vast minority.
Post a Comment