New Year, New Me?

By Fayzaan Sayed, Junior Reporter

Oh! It’s that time of the year again! The happiness of the festive season coupled with the burden and load of making ‘New Year’s Resolutions’. Unacceptable, I believe! How on earth can you burst the colourful, light, zesty, fun-filled balloon of festivities with the stinging prick of that piercing ‘thorn’ called the ‘new year’s resolution’, which eventually you are not going to follow! Well, honestly I have another take on all these clichéd ‘new year’s resolutions’, friends. Nevertheless, I tend to agree but I am not in complete consonance with temporary resolutions in life which is why I take umbrage on these fallacious and flawed ‘intentions’ come every December. Visualize this, my neighborhood aunty, ‘HUGE’ in capital letters, comes every end of the year to my mom and sits with a pensive face with the thought of her weight and then her face suddenly lights up ’cause in a jiffy she has made a ‘new year’s resolution’. Not hard to guess, isn’t it? Yes, finally she has thought of shedding those extra kilos starting January and then goes on to boast further that she will be like a thin stick at her brother’s, sister’s etc’s etc’s marriage next December. Great aunty, we are all with you. My mom agrees with a smile and actually gives her hope too! January — resolution going strong, February — still there, March — kind of there, April — I don’t think I can do it, May — it seems to be fizzling, June — complete surrender, I just can’t do it! Six months of complete horror and hopelessness! I mean to say, resolutions must be made, but for life not for 2016, 2017 and so on. A friend of mine resolved to stay away from all electronics and cut down his time from 5 hours a day to 2 hours, but just couldn’t do it! The temptations are far too many not to make you waver from your goal and then the guilt that starts eating you from within, the thought of defeat that engulfs you because you just couldn’t do it. I feel sad at this state.

Resolutions, I believe can be made any time of the year, but of course, the start of a New Year is like the proverbial ‘ray of hope’ and ‘a new dawn’ in our lives, thus, it is obviously an appropriate time to get them going. I have jotted a few resolutions of mine but a little bit vague and unspecific. They’re not really refined though, that’s for sure. They’re like: be better at everything, being a good human, being fitter, stop gorging on chocolates all the time, having a little more organization in routine life and the list goes on and on! I remember, it was pretty difficult for me to stick to my last year’s resolutions and I am sure it is almost identical to the state that most go through.

Another thought that always keeps me positive about my New Year’s resolution is that they are always ‘additions’ rather than ‘subtractions’ to life. Life doesn’t seem exciting when you make resolutions like ‘less fatty stuff’, ‘less gaming time’ and so on. Add ‘more’ to life like ‘more exercise’, ‘more focused and constructive studying’, ‘more veggies’ and see how it transforms your 2016 into a positive and energetic year. Actually when you concentrate and squeeze more of the pluses and positive things in life, there isn’t much to ponder and think about the minuses and negativity in life. I am positive that you, intelligent readers, would undoubtedly walk with me along this line of thought.

I have always been a believer in ‘Lifetime resolutions’ rather than ‘new year’s resolutions’. Yes, you can definitely mention the year when you make a lifetime resolution! Lifetime resolutions can turn out to be not only pragmatic, but also attainable in case of weaning off bad habits and vices gradually. The mindset ought to be such that ‘results’ would not be instantaneous as there are no short cuts to pure success and quick fixes to maladies. It is only with rigid perseverance, sincere determination and absolute firmness that you are going to catch that elusive butterfly called your ‘goal’.

On this sweet and encouraging note, let me put my pen down or rather relieve my pen drive from my ceaseless flow of thoughts and my laptop too. Whatever resolutions you make, hang on there and implement them with undeterred sincerity, for it is only going to do you loads of good in the coming months. I am sure you will want to share your achievements with your near and dear ones at the end of the year and YES, do clean the slate to put down some more novel resolutions for the next year! Have a BLAST and add ‘more’ to your life!