Resolutions: Here we go again!

(Random Trails )

It is that time of the year again where we embark on the farce, the crazy cycle, temporary renewal or the true journey of new year’s resolutions. Whether or not it is a farce, crazy cycle, temporary renewal or true journey to real growth or change and transformation varies from person to person.  And a lot of it is to do with your pattern over the years, your past record — have you ever been able at all to deliver on your resolutions? Do you have strong will power? Are you able as a person to follow through on your own decisions, choices and plans? How much resolve do you have?

Personally, I am happy to say that as I grow I have really started to take my resolutions more seriously and am better able to commit to them now as I begin my 40s than say in my 20s. As such I found that this past year that I ticked a whole lot more dones, than undones on my list! For me age has brought with it more of a sense of purposefulness and personal commitment to growth, achievement and effectiveness. But we are different. For others age may have nothing to do with it — which is why we have some 20-something year olds that may stick more to their resolutions than some 50 years olds. For some it could be circumstances that bring about more resolve.

Perhaps after being diagnosed with some health condition over the past year, now the resolve to be fit and stay healthful may resonate more for some people. For yet others it could be that some situation (an Epiphany or light bulb moment) forced them to look at themselves, assess their progress and came short and so decided to now do something about it.  Seriously. So, yeah, different things spur different people on. Just like different hurdles and humps also deter people and cause them to make a detour on resolutions and plans that may have started off with the best of intentions and most noble of goals. Whatever the case, for most of us keeping those resolutions and effectively delivering on them is a struggle. The momentum on January 1, just isn’t the same on February 3, August 14 and could become non-existent by December.

Be that as it may, I know your heart is in the right place. Continue to try.  Continue to apply yourself and see how far you can go.  Perhaps this is the year where you could end up ticking all goals as achieved.  But as you go ahead making these resolutions, tweaking them, applying them and implementing them know that you are not alone in the trenches.  The world over, resolutions are a tall order and people of all hues, creed and faiths from whatever the motivation strive to be better, do bigger and more in their respective lives.

 I have put together what some people, famous and not so famous, have said about new year’s resolutions over the years.  May you be inspired, comforted, tickled, humoured, buoyed on, encouraged, chastised, chided or whatever the case might be by the following quotations.

Character is the ability to carry out a good resolution long after the excitement of the moment has passed. —  Cavett Robert
Men should pledge themselves to nothing; for reflection makes a liar of their resolution.  — Sophocles
Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other. — Abraham Lincoln
How few there are who have courage enough to own their faults, or resolution enough to mend them. —   Benjamin Franklin
No one’s ever achieved financial fitness with a January resolution that’s abandoned by February. —   Suze Orman
Necessity of action takes away the fear of the act, and makes bold resolution the favorite of fortune. —Francis Quarles
Sometimes we know the best thing to do, but fail to do it. New year’s resolutions are often like that. We make resolutions because we know it would be better for us to lose weight, or get fit, or spend more time with our children. The problem is that a resolution is generally easier to break than it is to keep. —  Peter Singer
A New Year’s resolution that I can never keep? To be able to make decisions. —  Ashanti
New Year resolutions are not by force but they help us forge on better, help us avoid the mistakes which tried to hold us back in the past. —  Author Unknown
Don’t change because a new year is coming up but change for your own personal growth no matter what resolutions you make, they start with you. —  Author Unknown
This year, I’m just making one New Year’s resolution: Stop making resolutions. My only other resolution is to quit breaking my resolutions. — Author Unknown
Making resolutions is a cleansing ritual of self assessment and repentance that demands personal honesty and, ultimately, reinforces humility. Breaking them is part of the cycle. — Eric Zorn quotes
May all your troubles last as long as your New Years resolutions! — Joey Adams quotes
The object of a New Year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul.—   G. K. Chesterton
Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbours, and let each new year find you a better man. —  Benjamin Franklin
The Old Year has gone. Let the dead past bury its own dead. The New Year has taken possession of the clock of time. All hail the duties and possibilities of the coming twelve months! —  Edward Payson Powell
Cheers to a New Year and another chance for us to get it right.  —  Oprah Winfrey

A happy New Year! Grant that I May bring no tear to any eye When this New Year in time shall end Let it be said I’ve played the friend,  Have lived and loved and laboured here, And made of it a happy year.  —  Edgar Guest
We spend January 1 walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched. Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives… not looking for flaws, but for potential. —  Ellen Goodman
Unless a man starts afresh about things, he will certainly do nothing effective — G.K. Chesterton
Many people look forward to the new year for a new start on old habits. —  Author Unknown
– E-mail maggiemzumara@yahoo.ie. Or follow on Twitter @ magsmzumara