Meta Resolutions

(I originally posted this on Facebook at the start of 2018 [1]. I hope to review these resolutions on medium, before the end of the year. Hence, this sharing.)

In 2015, I made some new-year’s resolutions. In 2016 and 2017, I decided not to. This year, I thought of setting myself, not really resolutions, but some “meta-resolutions” — things that should influence everything I “resolve” to do.

i. Work Hard

Work Hard. Working hard is giving this moment all. All the attention I can muster. All the attention that moment deserves — which is all the attention. There is no other moment but this moment. And there is no such thing as bad or useless hard work. Work Hard.

ii. Be Simple

Be Simple. Embrace what really matters. What I know what I want. Discard and renounce everything else. Especially things I think or feel I want but know is unnecessary or meaningless. Be Simple.

iii. Play the Long Game

Play the Long Game. Nothing of short term is of value. Resist and desist the ephemeral, the transient and the evanescent. Everything of value needs time and hard work. The long game doesn’t end at some magical point in the future. Or at the end of some mystical time window. The long game begins now, and persists as long as meaning and purpose exist. Play the Long Game.

iv. Unjustify Pain

Unjustify Pain. Pain is when pain is. The hardest pain stems from justice denied. When justice is rationalized as rational even when it might not be. Let go of that lust for justice and the pain goes with it. Unjustify Pain

v. Untether from time

Untether from time. Untether time or time will tether. Be a slave to a window of moments, and what I create in that window will be constrained and contained into that brief casing. Consequence derives from meaningful time. Infinite value stems from the promise of infinite time. Untether from time.

vi. Finish

Finish. An unfinished moment begets unfinished moments, gradually straying from the original purpose. Finish the moment. Ask why. Why it happened in the first place, and let it end. Finish.

vii. Give-up

Give-up. Meaningful work needs time. And if I’m to work on valuable things, I’ll need to give-up valueless things. Give-up.

viii. Break Rules

Break Rules. Walking in a straight line is easy. But achieving a goal might involve walking along a curving, even distorted path, even in circles, or completely turning around and walking in the opposite direction. Momentum can be the wrong momentum. Habits can kill. Some rules are the wrong rules. Break Rules.

ix. Plead Ignorance

Plead Ignorance. Failure springs from refusing to accept what I don’t know. Leading to miscalculation, misjudgment and mishap. Get comfortable with saying “I don’t know” perhaps even “I won’t know”. Plead Ignorance.

x. Be Humble

Be Humble. Success is the child of proficiency, probability and provenance. When I succeed, I, too often, embrace the former, and forget the two latter. Be Humble.

[1] https://www.facebook.com/notes/nuwan-i-senaratna/meta-resolutions/10155358836008565/