A new year always brings new hopes, new dreams, new possibilities.
For some, it’s a time to wipe the slate clean and start fresh, while for others, it’s a time for renewal, a time to recharge and go full steam ahead in the coming year.
Some people sit and detail their plans for all they want to achieve.
Year after year, despite falling short of the mark, there are also those who make New Year’s resolutions.
They openly acknowledge that these may not be met, or even brazenly note that the same resolutions pop up every year on the list without fail, with the only change being the year.
Why make these resolutions though when we know some are so hard to keep or even achieve?
It may well be that it helps to give our lives purpose and meaning and helps us to chart a path forward during the year, even though we may veer off course.
It gives us a fresh perspective on life, presumably a fresh start. It also helps us to look ahead to the year with optimism.
We went to our Facebook readers and asked them to comment on this week’s Secret’s Corner question: Are there any New Year’s resolutions which you ever made that you kept? What are they, and why did you keep them but not the others you may have also made?
Some said they kept their resolution for health reasons or to save their marriage, while others were more flippant.
What came through was that though it might be true that New Year’s resolutions can help to put your life in proper perspective, especially when they are fundamental to your life and your health, what might be more meaningful is simply charting a new and positive course for your life, living each day as if it was your last (sorry for the cliché) and celebrating all of life’s experiences – be it in your personal or professional life.
Sometimes people can get so caught up with resolutions that they fail to acknowledge the simple things that they do get right, and the things that make a difference.
So the advice going forward in 2012 is to get busy living and celebrating life and all it has to offer.
The following are edited answers readers gave:
• “Two years ago I made a resolution to lose some weight and be healthy in the New Year. I kept that promise. Why? Because my health was failing; my blood pressure was high and when my doctor told me that it can affect my heart and my kidneys, I had to take stock of my life and my health. So there and then I vowed to lose weight and exercise more. For me, my resolution was about life or death.”
• “To be true to myself. See past the facade. Remain objective and discard the vultures.”
• “To not make a New Year’s Resolution.”
• “My hope for the New Year is that some of the people of Barbados would abandon the pride and arrogance which they wear like a badge of honour.”
• “My New Year’s resolution some time ago was to try to make my marriage work. I was unhappy and I can tell that my husband was too. We had a good heart-to-heart (talk) and both agreed that we had to try to make it work or else we would be miserable and disrespectful to each other.
“We tried and tried and even though it wasn’t easy, we are still married. . . . So I am glad we both made that New Year’s resolution because we are still married and we are not unhappy anymore.”
• “To be more productive at my job. I was miserable because I was looking at the wrong things and wrong people. I was an eye servant but then I told myself that I will change that going into a new year. Since then, I focused on me and my job and my duties, and I have to say I am not miserable anymore at my job. In fact, I love my job.”
