Much Ado About Resolutions

I've never had the habit of making new year resolutions, and I'll not make an exception by starting one now. The last time when I was told to make a resolution was by my primary school teacher when I was 12 years old. Obviously, she didn't understand the futility of having one, but I did: a week later, I had totally forgotten about it.

There is nothing remarkable about my inability to keep resolutions. Most people never do, because that's just how humans are. We all 'live in hope', making wishes year after year and yet without fail, almost every single time, the wishes fall flat on our faces. To me, it is more remarkable that only a few has picked up on the futility of this exercise.

A wish generally isn't sufficient in attaining what you want, it requires planning and concerted effort to accomplish. Most self-help books will have harped on this ad nauseam, so go to the nearest library and pick up a book; There won't be any merit for me in further expanding this.

'Live in hope', while positive sounding, is just insidious optimism, especially in the case of blind hope. Hoping for a positive outcome that has not a sliver of a chance does not empower, but only enfeebles the mind: it stops us from taking action, but only to leave things to chance and wish that someone, somehow will appear and make things right.

Hope is probably one of the compelling reasons why so many people adopt a faith. Not that it is necessarily a bad thing, by the way, especially when one has to emotionally rely on faith as a moral guidance. It is just sad when we have to act based on the tenets set by dead ancient history, which sometimes becomes irrelevant in modern context, than to act with better sensibilities and knowledge that's available to our own living, thinking senses today.

As my first post of the year, I wish a Happy New Year to all my friends, and to all of you who read my blog. But instead of just wishing for a good year ahead, I hope that you'll make more enlightened, informed decisions, and may you make the best of all possible choices for 2008!


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