Revolutionary Resolutions
First, thank you for returning to this blogsite. I greatly enjoy our dialogue and hope to hear more from everybody. Let's work toward not just a happy, but meaningful new year.
Attempting to be punny in my last post I said I was braking for the holidays. I did and the break was valuable. I did a fairly good job of distancing myself from what I do most of the time with my time and energy. Of course, that resulted in me adding a few pounds ....
I want to start 2006 with a few thoughts about the ubiquitous efforts surrounding the making of resolutions. Much of what is said and written about resolving one's ways with a desire to improve whatever it is we are resolving to improve becomes nothing more than creating a prescriptive list of do's and don'ts. Also, nearly all of the resolutions seem to involve starting or stopping something. In other words, resolutions normally do not involve admonishing oneself to continue doing something or to continue refraining from doing something. Rather, resolutions want changed behavior, marching orders to ourselves to commence a new day when we initiate a new and improved identity.
This is revolutionary, because what we wish to happen would create change in who we are and how others see us. At this point, resolutions align very closely with repentance, an inner longing to turn away from and move in a new direction. This is good, for with successful resolutions and repentance we move closer to what our interiors know to be something better, something improved, something freeing and redeeming.
The danger is making unrealistic resolutions. The tempting allure of resolutions gives us a sense of power, an ability to change by fiat. Such seduction proves shallow early on when the resolutions fail and we realize such perceived power was only a facade for wishful thinking. The subsequent sense of failure cascades into a very real depression haunting us that maybe, just maybe, we will never be able to change, really change. This is unfortunate and, actually, unnecessary.
The error is not in and of itself repenting and making resolutions, but resolving unrealistically. This year back off on the need to become totally transformed and, instead, work (and it will take work) toward veering away from undesirable behavior with a realistic, steady steering toward a better self. Chip away the scales of unacceptable weight and move, as if your life depended on it, because in a sense it does, toward an attainable, fresh, recreated being. Rather than command change, allow change to evolve.
Don't try this alone. Enlist significant people in your life to help you in this metamorphosis. True friends will appreciate and honor being incorporated into what is important to you. Create dialogue with these friends and reciprocate. Positive community is birthed and that is revolutionary, the beginning of something worth living for. To paraphrase Henry Ford (I think), whether or not you believe it can happen, you're right.
Attempting to be punny in my last post I said I was braking for the holidays. I did and the break was valuable. I did a fairly good job of distancing myself from what I do most of the time with my time and energy. Of course, that resulted in me adding a few pounds ....
I want to start 2006 with a few thoughts about the ubiquitous efforts surrounding the making of resolutions. Much of what is said and written about resolving one's ways with a desire to improve whatever it is we are resolving to improve becomes nothing more than creating a prescriptive list of do's and don'ts. Also, nearly all of the resolutions seem to involve starting or stopping something. In other words, resolutions normally do not involve admonishing oneself to continue doing something or to continue refraining from doing something. Rather, resolutions want changed behavior, marching orders to ourselves to commence a new day when we initiate a new and improved identity.
This is revolutionary, because what we wish to happen would create change in who we are and how others see us. At this point, resolutions align very closely with repentance, an inner longing to turn away from and move in a new direction. This is good, for with successful resolutions and repentance we move closer to what our interiors know to be something better, something improved, something freeing and redeeming.
The danger is making unrealistic resolutions. The tempting allure of resolutions gives us a sense of power, an ability to change by fiat. Such seduction proves shallow early on when the resolutions fail and we realize such perceived power was only a facade for wishful thinking. The subsequent sense of failure cascades into a very real depression haunting us that maybe, just maybe, we will never be able to change, really change. This is unfortunate and, actually, unnecessary.
The error is not in and of itself repenting and making resolutions, but resolving unrealistically. This year back off on the need to become totally transformed and, instead, work (and it will take work) toward veering away from undesirable behavior with a realistic, steady steering toward a better self. Chip away the scales of unacceptable weight and move, as if your life depended on it, because in a sense it does, toward an attainable, fresh, recreated being. Rather than command change, allow change to evolve.
Don't try this alone. Enlist significant people in your life to help you in this metamorphosis. True friends will appreciate and honor being incorporated into what is important to you. Create dialogue with these friends and reciprocate. Positive community is birthed and that is revolutionary, the beginning of something worth living for. To paraphrase Henry Ford (I think), whether or not you believe it can happen, you're right.
posted by Joe Marek | 1:20 PM
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