New Year-New hopes but no resolutions 

I have been reading that people often consider the month of January as self-improvement and the process begins a fortnight before the month of January actually comes. Fact is people try to re-invent themselves a couple of weeks before a New Year begins and this is not limited to any particular part of the globe but allover the world. People allover the places hope to change the world in a coming new year, including themselves. I think the human psychology keeps people pushing to add more values to their lives in every New Year that comes. And to translate those wishes into realities they declare them as New Year Resolutions. 

Look at these

In most cases, people begin writing their New Year resolutions right from the beginning of December. Most people begin to imagine as if the world is going to change for them in coming year. They come up with innovative plans; they wish to start as soon as the clock strikes twelve on the New Year night. Would you like to see some of the most common wishes, which come as Resolutions in this case? 

You might have noticed that almost all our resolutions are nothing but a factor that involves ‘me’ which will change the world in coming year. Most of these resolutions are related to our either lifestyles or habits, which stay there in our subconscious waiting to get rid of from our systems. Most of these are not followed through or never take a shape beyond the resolution stage. As much as 90% people do not remember on first of January that they ever promised a thing with themselves only the previous night. 

Does anyone ever care to think about reasons for broken promises? If not, let me tell you few facts. It is so because most of the resolutions we made were nothing but our desires that we always wanted to fulfill but never succeeded in doing so or we never tried hard enough. Most of the resolutions are nothing but a 'novelties' we wish to show to the world but soon brush them aside within no time. Besides there are number of other reasons including our laziness, we are not prepared, we are bored or there is not enough motivation behind the promises to keep them up. And then there is no one to remind you about your own promises so you may forget them easily.  

Are you interested to try something else?

We should do something different this year. The times for resolutions is over now but let’s do something out of the box. Let’s think beyond ourselves but think about certain urgent things, which need our immediate attention instead. As they say, in place of cheering for yourself, it’s better to cheer for someone else. I am not sure who said it or where I read it but it was someone big. Let’s make resolutions for others, for people those are lesser blessed. Let’s make our resolution beyond ‘Me’ but let them focus on people who need them most. I know it will give you immense pleasure if only you go out of the way and work for people who are deprived of smallest of necessities of life. You will be having a great feeling of fulfillment and joy if you could provide them smallest of happiness. Just look beyond yourselves and touch the world around you. 

Yes, there is no greater joy that you can have than doing something for people, those are not fortunate enough. The best part is that most of such people could be absolutely strangers for you. What I believe that one does not have to be a Florence Nightingale to serve the suffering people or a Mother Teresa to go create an environment for serving the poor children but we all can do it through our smallest of support. I do it with my small share for the homeless people in my hometown, I know my efforts are not enough but I try my level best. Oh yeas, we all have it in us to be a small hero in our own style for our own satisfaction. We all can help reduce the hatred the world seems to be so engulfed with. Here is our chance to make our resolutions by opening our hearts and minds for the sake of people suffering from so many paucity in life. 

We have a chance here

It certainly is an altogether different resolution from the orthodox types we are so used to making while sitting in parties or chatting leisurely with friends or jotting on a writing pad. There is far more than to sitting on a laptop and searching through the Google for those self-centric resolutions most of which never see the dawn of second of January. I was astonished to see my Facebook pages filled with innovative ideas about resolutions for 2014 and number of ‘Friends’, liking them. But is it all about those ‘Likes’ we get there on Facebook? Don’t we really need those ‘Likes’ in real life? In my own humble views, we need those ‘Likes’ from the community that needs our help most. I would certainly like those ‘Likes’ coming from those suffering people who do not know me in real life. I would like to explore newer worlds where I can spend my money that I save from not throwing the parties for already over drunken friends. I would want to identify opportunities, which I can utilize with my small budget. 

I feel grateful when people bless me

Haven’t you felt great whenever you did smallest of charity and received tons of blessing in return? I cherish such moments. I certainly feel better when I spend my money to those who need them more than giving party to my friends. I have tried these both but now I know for sure what is better than the other. If you ask me, working for others is so addictive really! Have you ever tried helping a friend in need? I would do that any day without waiting for a New Year to come for that. And it is so much practical setting such goals and go for them because that will not make me ashamed when I will fail to keep those unpractical resolutions. 

I will not make any resolutions just for the sake of making them. There is no second opinion that people who do good things for others always end up feeling better than people who think in terms of ‘Me’.  Practically speaking, it all depends upon your own capabilities to help the people. It is still okay to throw a party but set it for people who have never tasted such delicacies, which will be served to be wasted, because most of your friends whom you have invited have no appetite left to consume what you have organized for them. So why not make it a special day for an orphanage or people suffering from leprosy? There are many organizations in every area engaged in service to the poor but they do it without advertising therefore most of us do not hear about them. But if we go and search for such organizations, we shall find that these institutes are working for the cause of education of poor children, arranging for water for stray cattle and rickshaw pullers, distributing blankets to homeless who spend their nights in the open. In fact, there is so much to do but we prefer to find resolutions on the internet.              

So what about your top ten list of resolutions?

I think it’s going to sound a different music to the ears of people who are so used to those orthodox resolutions I mentioned in the beginning. It is going to be altogether different but will sound more like an interior makeover. It would sound like temple bells when a needy person will bless you for the little efforts you did for him will prove great support for him. You do not have to donate your property for the cause of poor but only have to share what you easily can to bring joy for others who do not know the meaning of joy. Spending your time with lonely senior citizens in ‘Old Age Homes’ is better than spending thousands of Rupees on boozing parties. 

You can keep your regular resolutions if you wish to keep them but make a few changes in them and see to it that you do not forget about them on January 2, 3 or 10. Things always get better. We all need help in life as we may fall down or go through a bad patch, but this is only temporary and it always help us preparing for something better. Your role comes in such a situation, if you can help someone who has fallen down, you have to pick them up and show them light. That will be helpful for the person but the satisfaction you will get in the process will be immense.  

My question for you

With the help of small efforts from all of us, we can live in a different world, away from what it is. The world could become more caring if we become a little more helpful. May I ask from you a straightforward question at this point? May I know about what are the points you are going to add in your resolution for rest of the year? No, I am not in a hurry to know about your priorities but think about what are the things you would like to change to make a difference? You only have to think about your priorities to take a decision according to your own ways that make you happy and the rest of it will be easy to decide. 

You only have to identify the opportunities at your disposal to take a decision and trust me there is no shortage of such opportunities which will change your future resolutions. So, when you make your resolutions, keep some of my suggestions in your mind, you will find a difference. You have to keep this also in your mind that ‘No one becomes poorer by giving’. Again, this is said by someone who also thought on the same lines that when you give someone a little bit of your time, money, knowledge, sympathy or whatever you can. You do not loose any thing by giving but you get far more in return than what you gave in the first place.

Conclusion

Let’s break the cycle of old fashioned resolution making with a simple idea that we need not go for big resolutions which are hard to keep in real life. Most of those idealistic resolutions are nothing but status symbol that sounds good but if you ask anyone, he will laugh you off. Most of them were started when people were doing them for the sake of doing as another fancy program that we all are used to doing on New Year’s occasions. Let’s all go for the new resolution – we shall never make a false resolution.