The “New” Year celebration might be the biggest placebo that our society entertains.
Each year, as you know, scads of hopeful individuals make lists of resolutions decreeing that things will certainly be different next year. The motivation of a fresh start, to its credit, has sometimes been known to generate up to two months of the desired behaviors.
We promote the illusion of a brand-new day all of the time.
As a college student, I cling to the promise of a new semester, and I’ve often treated a night’s sleep as the equivalent of a reset button.
But that isn’t the truth.
The truth is I am bound by the bookends of life just like everyone else: birth and death. What I’ve done is done; what I’ll do I’ll do. It all lies before me in a straight line.
My point is not to dismantle the inspiration that comes with the myth of renewal, but to suggest that a new day, semester, or year isn’t a prerequisite for improvement.
In light of this train of thought, I’ve made a list of resolutions that I want to begin right now. Resolutions that are not designed for the year ahead, but for right now, even as a type and as my thoughts wonder away from what I type.
Here they are.
1. Like and appreciate everything: I’m uninterested in being inhibited by distaste. Surely there is something worthwhile in everything. I want to mine it out and revel in it. I will make two reservations for this. First, I will not like or appreciate sin, which is a concept I still believe in and hope to avoid. Second, I will choose to like some things more than others, recognizing the value of priority and preference when it comes to being productive and loving others well.
2. Answer all questions: Too often my response to questions has been to discount them. If someone asked it of me, I should give it my best effort in respect to them as well as the pursuit of knowledge and self-actualization. Again, I have a couple of reservations. First, I am allowed to conclude that I do not know, but only after all options are exhausted. Second, I am allowed to withhold the answer from the asker once I have discovered it. Nonetheless, all questions will be afforded credence in my thought-life.
3. Be slow to speak: I borrow this resolution from the Bible, which I still count as my primary guide. I am eager to share my thoughts, often to a fault. It is worth my while to listen, consider, and perhaps, eventually, speak. I do not limit this to vocalization. Even at times when I keep to myself, I am “speaking” in my mind in ways that I do not find valuable or as lending to integrity. I mean to quit this.
4. Lay down my desires for other's: I fear I am growing increasingly self-centered. How is it that I have become so bothered? It isn’t becoming. I hope to learn to forget myself and spend my thoughts for others. I think it is true what they say about choosing to be last and how one day it makes sense.
5. Err on the side of decision: It is easy to be unsure; in fact, it’s inevitable. What isn’t easy is developing a willingness to make the wrong decision. I want to take that path, because I believe that inaction is second to worthy efforts. And so I’ll try and fail, or maybe I’ll succeed. In any case, I’ll decide.
