Sunday, January 10, 2010

New Years Resolutions



Our written and known history only goes back some 200 years here in Australia, (England has toilets older than that!) so we take and adapt customs from all over the world, trouble is we sometimes get it wrong and since they're borrowed traditions we don’t know any better.
I’m really having doubts about Boxing Day…but that’s a story for another time.

New years resolutions annoy me, we seem to purposely make crazy resolutions that we have no hope at all of fulfilling then brag about how quickly we break them. It seems to me that if you were making a resolution you would expect to at least try to keep it…but no!
January is full of stories about having given up alcohol then celebrated the fact with a beer or three. Given up smoking and celebrate with a cigar, or given up sex and…well, we might not go there eh!
For the next few weeks you are pestered by friends and people in general wanting to know how badly you failed and how long you didn't last. The celebration seems to be about how badly you failed, the winner being the saddest, loserest most inept promise maker. (strangely, wedding vows sprang to mind here) Hmm! But I digress.

About twenty years ago I decided to opt out by making and keeping a new years resolution. (very un-Australian of me) I decided and swore an oath to never again make a new years resolution… and I’ve never broken it.
I still get asked about what I've sworn and when I tell them they look blankly at me for some seconds, waiting for the punch line.
Sorry folks, no punch line…and no resolutions…I resolve!


I RESOLVE TO STOP PARTYING SO MUCH

6 comments:

Pearl said...

Good for you!

Honestly, I've resolved to go to yoga three to four times a week, as I was doing all last year -- right up until a lovely bout with ever kind sickness you can think of in November and December...

Pearl

Dgls57 said...

Yes, I agree.
I can not remember when I last made a new years resolution.

Andrew Gerald Hales said...

love it. I think goals are good. Especially when you write them down.

Tempo said...

Pearl, Exercise is one of the hardest things to commit to, it's too hot/cold, dont have time or just cant be fu**ed doing it. You're a real trooper for committing to put yourself through it...and good luck with that!

Hi Doug, Yeah, I'm SO over the whole resolution thing, I just cant see any good reason to put myself through it for....well, nothing really.

Hi Andrew, Whatever works for you mate...I don't bother to write them down because I think if I have to write them to commit to them then there isn't much point. I've always been strong on 'my word is my bond'

Elyssa said...

I don't make resolutions in the traditional way. I think of a few simple ways I can fine-tune my life or goals I'm hoping to achieve in the next 1-5 yrs and work on them. This year I decided to focus more on singing and on being responsible for my finances and wellbeing. They're things I've been doing anyway so it just gives me a bit of a boost into the new year.

Tempo said...

..I think thats probably what the resolutions thing is all about Lyss, sensible but manageable improvements to make life that much better. Sadly, around here it seems all bluster and failure