By now, about ten days have passed since the new year. A lot of us made resolutions for the new year. Many of us are already finding it difficult to keep it up. The gym membership that we took at the beginning of the year and the resolution of going to the gym every day has already dropped to about three days a week. Many diets have been compromised. Getting up early has been compromised. By the end of January, most of our resolutions are junked. Why does this happen? Very often we make a resolution just because we find a lot of people doing it or we think that it is the ideal thing to do, or due to our enthusiasm or pressure from friends, social media etc.
If these resolutions are really important to you, there is a connect with your deep-seated priorities of life. They will fail, if not. Is the desire to exercise really coming from my value for health etc or is it something that we're supposed to do or just to look good or because everyone is following a fad diet? If a resolution is connected with our priorities, then it's easier to find the enthusiasm and the will to stick to it and carry it out for whatever length of time is required. If not connected with our priorities it is bound to fall on the wayside.
Now that we have completed about 10 days of the new year, we can really relook at our resolutions and find the enthusiasm and the will to do, to keep what is in harmony with my priorities. Those resolutions we made, which are not in harmony with my priorities, can be quietly junked without any sense of guilt or shame. Resolutions are not meant to create guilt in you but to enhance your life. And that happens only if you're meeting your life priorities. Just say “it was not meant for me”. That's it. You don't have to be doing what the whole world is doing. You can walk to the beat of a different drum.
The writer is the founder of Aarsha Vidya Foundation. You can write to him at aarshavidyaf@gmail.com
