Raju Korti
Resolutions are like records -- meant to be broken.
The one regulation question that is usually asked of you is "What's your resolution for the new year?" and whenever I would be confronted with it, I would try to summon all my steely grit into my eyes and wax eloquent on what I intended to do -- or not to do -- armed with the experience and wisdom of the past. Over the years, I realised, and not to any chagrin of mine, that the resolutions that I pompously announced to whoever cared to listen, petered out faster than I had thought of them.
However, there was one saving grace in this fiasco. Most resolutions that I made were out of the box and my heart only played the role of a guest artist in those. So when my good intentions to bring them to effect couldn't see the light of the day, I had very little or no heart burns. Like most others, my mind and my heart would always be at loggerheads. I had wised up to my idiosyncracies better than I actually knew.
Although an acknowledged failure at sustaining my resolutions, I would never cease marvelling at my friends and relatives who would announce their resolutions with so much emphasis that often made me feel like a pansy. It wasn't untill that it dawned upon me that they were no better than me.
Most resolutions pertain to lifestyle changes. Let me list the usual verbal fluff.
1)Lose weight, exercise more, reduce drinking, and generally, get rid of old habits
2)Think positive, laugh more and, as far as possible, enjoy life
3)Save more money, get out of debts
4)Secure better job or set up own business
5)Study better and learn some new craft
6)Become more oraganised, watch less TV
7)Improve social skills, choose friends wisely
8)Spend more time with family
9) Get married and settle down
The beauty of these resolutions is they are so simple and yet so utopian. If I may be allowed to say, even contradictory. I have seen people eating gluttonously within minutes of saying that weight watch was their prime concern. Many lapsed into their harangues, without realising that it wasn't long ago before they had decided to make their faces more presentable with positive smiles. If you wanted to know how many started burning more midnight oil to get better grades, all you had to do was to log on to Facebook to see the swelling number of people joining the "Let this year go, I will seriously study from next year." And marriage rarely had anything to do with settling down.
Making a resolution seems to be a reflex defence mechanism to feel good in the face of the drawbacks we all have and desperately want to overcome. Some time back I read a sample survey which showed that 88% new year resolutions fail despite the fact that 52% of them swore to make them work in the initial stages. I am glad I belong to the elite category who has come to grips with the fact that resolutions are all steam and gas.
Except when pushed to the wall, I have never been able to garner the grit to stick to a resolution. As a kid I once tried to spring-clean my room by emptying the contents of every single cupboard and drawer on to the floor and then putting everthing back tidily. Halfway through, my resolve deserted me and I just shoved things back -- more untidily than before -- thinking my parents who thought their son was maturing, wouldn't notice. They did.
So this year, my resolution -- if you can call it that -- is as simple and as vague as it can get -- to make my life better. The advantage that obtains from such a resolution is the leeway you can exercise in realising it. Better still, I can reserve the superior right of doing or rather not doing anything that makes me feel happy. In fact, perennial self-improvement is a hobby in itself. And it takes up an awful lot of time, you know. A friend philosophises it succinctly: Boss, apna resolution ye hai ke apna koi resolution nahi." To his credit, I have never seen smile fade from his face. "Your biggest indulgence should be you," actor Dev Anand, whose hobby had graduated to what many believe was narcissism, once told me. I have taken a leaf out of his voluminous book.
I am my own hobby now and it doesn't need any resolve at all.
Resolutions are like records -- meant to be broken.
The one regulation question that is usually asked of you is "What's your resolution for the new year?" and whenever I would be confronted with it, I would try to summon all my steely grit into my eyes and wax eloquent on what I intended to do -- or not to do -- armed with the experience and wisdom of the past. Over the years, I realised, and not to any chagrin of mine, that the resolutions that I pompously announced to whoever cared to listen, petered out faster than I had thought of them.
However, there was one saving grace in this fiasco. Most resolutions that I made were out of the box and my heart only played the role of a guest artist in those. So when my good intentions to bring them to effect couldn't see the light of the day, I had very little or no heart burns. Like most others, my mind and my heart would always be at loggerheads. I had wised up to my idiosyncracies better than I actually knew.
Although an acknowledged failure at sustaining my resolutions, I would never cease marvelling at my friends and relatives who would announce their resolutions with so much emphasis that often made me feel like a pansy. It wasn't untill that it dawned upon me that they were no better than me.
Most resolutions pertain to lifestyle changes. Let me list the usual verbal fluff.
1)Lose weight, exercise more, reduce drinking, and generally, get rid of old habits
2)Think positive, laugh more and, as far as possible, enjoy life
3)Save more money, get out of debts
4)Secure better job or set up own business
5)Study better and learn some new craft
6)Become more oraganised, watch less TV
7)Improve social skills, choose friends wisely
8)Spend more time with family
9) Get married and settle down
The beauty of these resolutions is they are so simple and yet so utopian. If I may be allowed to say, even contradictory. I have seen people eating gluttonously within minutes of saying that weight watch was their prime concern. Many lapsed into their harangues, without realising that it wasn't long ago before they had decided to make their faces more presentable with positive smiles. If you wanted to know how many started burning more midnight oil to get better grades, all you had to do was to log on to Facebook to see the swelling number of people joining the "Let this year go, I will seriously study from next year." And marriage rarely had anything to do with settling down.
Making a resolution seems to be a reflex defence mechanism to feel good in the face of the drawbacks we all have and desperately want to overcome. Some time back I read a sample survey which showed that 88% new year resolutions fail despite the fact that 52% of them swore to make them work in the initial stages. I am glad I belong to the elite category who has come to grips with the fact that resolutions are all steam and gas.
Except when pushed to the wall, I have never been able to garner the grit to stick to a resolution. As a kid I once tried to spring-clean my room by emptying the contents of every single cupboard and drawer on to the floor and then putting everthing back tidily. Halfway through, my resolve deserted me and I just shoved things back -- more untidily than before -- thinking my parents who thought their son was maturing, wouldn't notice. They did.
So this year, my resolution -- if you can call it that -- is as simple and as vague as it can get -- to make my life better. The advantage that obtains from such a resolution is the leeway you can exercise in realising it. Better still, I can reserve the superior right of doing or rather not doing anything that makes me feel happy. In fact, perennial self-improvement is a hobby in itself. And it takes up an awful lot of time, you know. A friend philosophises it succinctly: Boss, apna resolution ye hai ke apna koi resolution nahi." To his credit, I have never seen smile fade from his face. "Your biggest indulgence should be you," actor Dev Anand, whose hobby had graduated to what many believe was narcissism, once told me. I have taken a leaf out of his voluminous book.
I am my own hobby now and it doesn't need any resolve at all.
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