Resolutions and Resolve

I’m very quick to roll my eyes. Being a skeptic- I don’t know how much of it is due to nature and how much to nurture- I tend to dismiss much quicker than I accept. With this in mind, I thought it fitting to formulate a clear outline explaining something I've become fond of saying every year in January. It’s always my answer to that inevitable festive season question: “So, any new year’s resolutions?” To this I reply, almost as a reflex: I don’t believe in resolutions. I believe in resolve.

I thought it fitting to write about it because it’s something I’d probably roll my eyes at before genuinely considering, and I wouldn't blame any of you for doing the same. Facebook and Twitter have after all turned us all into pseudo-philosophers.  We've become experts at filling status updates with paragraphs of wind, constructing 140 characters of illogical drivel, and posting countless edited images we’d like to portray as our reality- filtered pictures and unfiltered thoughts. The point is this: you wouldn't be blamed for thinking my little motto is just another attempt at meaningless ‘wisdom’.

But humour me.

The Thrill of the New

There’s nothing like the thrill of newness. Novelty is what sells Hollywood movies, drives us to theme parks, and motivates thousands to camp outside i-Store outlets in a bid to be the first possessors of the latest iPhones.  It seems that, from time immemorial, we have always had an innate thirst for discovery, that is, new experiences. Just ask Vasco Da Gama. Furthermore, and perhaps more interestingly, I read somewhere that consumerism is such a successful economic model because buying something new makes us feel new. I don’t know how to feel about that-  about the fact that my new phone is not only an indicator of economic status but potentially also an attempt to (re)create my identity.

Anyway, what does newness have to do with my little motto? Simply, New Year’s resolutions seem to become obsolete when the year is not so new anymore. In other words, when the novelty of having made the resolution itself fades, there’s no longer motivation to pursue it. The very name is a dead giveaway- we think of these (often abstract) goals as functions of the new season, and as the season wears on, the motivation does too.

Your Season Ain’t Mine

This new-season-new-resolution thinking brings me to my second reason for dismissing the ‘New Year’s Resolution’ concept: it implies that we are all more or less at the same stage in our life cycles. Of course, this is not the case. I may be facing a ‘season’ in which I need to channel all my energy into completing or achieving a certain thing- say, for example, studying for a board exam. In this case, it makes absolutely no sense for me add onto my plate the psychological (and sometimes physical) demand of a resolution I expect myself to realize. For me, in this particular season, there is no space for other goals and/or objectives. In fact the realization of other long term goals may be subject to my ability to successfully complete the board exam.

The trajectory of our lives does not follow a January to December progression. I’m dealing with things now that I did not have to think about in August simply because they were unforeseen at that stage. And up until that stage, I would not have foreseen them either, especially not as far back as January last year. Blanket resolutions that cover a whole year as if life is even relatively predictable over 12 months are a fallacy and, for me, a waste of time. Often if circumstances don’t change in that time, you do. Or vice versa.

Resolve

The idea of resolution is, for me, a lot more concrete, a lot more person-specific. My dictionary says that ‘resolve’ as a verb speaks to coming to a definite decision, and as a noun is “the trait of being resolute”. Notice that it is not preceded by ‘New’ this or ‘New’ that’, and therefore isn't subject to the flimsy ecstasy of newness, of fleeting novelty. Additionally, resolve doesn't have to be a year’s thing- it can be a 2 month thing, a 6 week thing, a 2 day thing, heck, a one-minute-at-a-time thing if that’s what it takes.

The results of my resolve, my determination and application in working towards a certain goal, will be evident even if I don’t splash it all over social networks. What’s more, the goals I quietly decide on are more likely to be relevant to my stage of life and personal convictions than the shared resolutions which may be heavily influenced by or simply mimetic of popular (yet depersonalized) clichés that many others purport to be pursuing- not necessarily because they see the importance thereof, but because it gives them a subtle degree of social (media) capital.

Off I go, then, to share my thoughts with you by means of a post, share, and tweet. I've resigned myself to the likelihood that I will encounter some ostensibly profound musing about 2015 being the year of greater things and what have you. How quickly we've forgotten the supposedly rosy ‘Twenty-For-Me’.

*Rolls eyes*