Bini Dahal

I do not remember when all of this began, but I have been pretty serious about making resolutions for a long time now. The urge to draft a rough resolution comes strong right around the New Year every year. And now that only a day is left, this desire is unbearable. Making resolutions has become a religion for me and I feel empty and unproductive without doing it.

While saying this, I would like to show a big difference between making resolutions and actually materialising them. I might be jotting down every single want of mine. However, their manifestation is not an easy task. This hints back to a major issue that most people suffer from, for example, a lack of self-discipline. Going back to the past year’s resolutions, I had prioritised eating healthy foods, losing some kilos of my body weight, being active and academically successful as well.

And when it came to the implementation part, I was struggling a lot. I might have eaten healthy foods for a few days and suddenly with the onset of the festival season, I had lost track of what exactly I was eating. Talking about academics, assignments, presentations and exams had come running towards me at the same time! I had begun questioning myself if I really wanted to become academically successful at this point. These lists go on and on.

Finding me so serious about meeting my resolutions, certain people just laugh off. They have been able to manifest and achieve everything they have wanted without wasting a single piece of paper. But because old habits die hard, I have been unable to let go of this tradition. There are days when I get motivated by a Quora page and before the motivation dies down, I am beginning to write everything I need for a good life. Though I am strict about what I include and not include in my yearly lists of resolutions, I am too lenient on the year end.

I might feel that I have not reached up to a certain mark. However, I make myself understand that there is no point in stressing myself for what I could not achieve. But I believe improvements come slowly, steadily and even sometimes unconsciously. The person that I was a year ago is a complete opposite of the persona I hold at present. And this is the real delight of life. Consciousness sometimes destroys the real beauty and pleasure of life and makes us rigid. We all are improving, changing and growing in our ways. Just the intensity of our growth and improvement differs from person to person.

A resolution is a way for us to get out of the bad habit trap. But the more unrealistic it is made, the more baseless our hope becomes. Developing realistic and practical resolutions are very important. Therefore, I promise to stop making resolutions for a short-time dopamine release. This year’s flawless resolution will be to remain grounded, positive and not so straining on myself. As long as efforts are made, it is completely fine to not meet them. It is also fine to just jot down your manifestations for your own peace of mind.