New Year Resolution II

We have come to that time of the year when we engage in our usual New Year’s resolution- a time when we take stock of our actions in the course of the year and pledge to ourselves, sheepishly, to become better persons, at least to quit some of our awful habits, in the incoming year. At about this time last year, I alluded in my post how baffled I was at the vanity of making quickie New Year resolutions that were often abandoned in a jiffy. I am still baffled! It is still that same story line that people usually give for not keeping up their resolutions. Another opportunity to make those lists of over-ambitious resolutions, with nano-commitment to see them through, is here again.

Last year, on the New Year’s Eve, My friend, like others who had jumped on the bandwagon of New Year’s resolution, had resolved to lose some pounds, not that she belonged to the heavy, but self-contented, class. She just needed a body like Mel B’s velvet bronzed skinny body. Mel B was her role model. She planned to earn her desired body by living on diets. She started with mixed raw vegetables and less fatty foods. A few weeks after she had embarked on that fantasy wagon, I asked her how well she had fared in her ride through her resolution. It was on a Monday. Her response was comical. She said she had already ruined her diet. She ruined her diet on that Monday morning by eating what was off and adversarial to her diet recipe. For her, diets could not possibly start on any other day, except Mondays. She then concluded she would have to wait until next Monday. That week was a slippage of the vigor she had muscled to earn her desired Mel B’s slinky body. There is always an excuse to quit a resolution. That was her get-away ticket! There are many people like my friend; they make resolutions; they do not play to the hilt; so they quit.

Last year I literally made one resolution– to be gladly accommodating to everyone. It seemed I fetched ant-infested firewood that ended up inviting horde of lizards into my tender home. I guess I was overly obliging. My tolerance weakened my amulets; I became a weakling in the face of my adversaries! If it was a mistake, I made it, and I learnt from it. I became a better person after all. I want to make more mistakes this year. That’s my resolution for this year! My jump-off is with compartment of lives- I have divided my life into different compartments and created spaces everyone deserves. But I do not intend to make mistakes this year alone. I want partners! Let’s make mistakes together in this incoming year.

Mistakes are not killers. They mold you into a better clay of your kind. Making mistakes is rewarding. Whatever you have put in your to-do list this year let them be your mistakes. You will do them and you will learn from them. Neil Gaiman, the British Author, tells me that if I am making mistakes, then I am making new things; I am trying new things; I am learning new things; I am living and pushing myself to the limit; and most importantly, I am changing myself and my world. If you join me this year to make mistakes, you will learn from Neil that you will not only do things you have never done before, but also and most importantly, will do something tangible and rewarding this year. Not the mistakes we have made before and failed to learn from. But new mistakes- “glorious” and “amazing” mistakes- those mistakes we have never made before and we have not seen or heard anyone make before. Let’s make new mistakes and leave indelible imprints on the virgin snows in our lives!

While making your mistakes pay attention to Neil; “do not freeze, do not stop, do not worry that it is not good enough, or it is not perfect.” What matters is that you are making mistakes and you are learning from them. If you want to make a change, you will make mistakes. In the arc of daily life struggles making mistakes can lead to fortune when taken in (your) stride. Whatever it is your resolution is this year, do not be scarred to do it this year; you have to do it; just do it!

Happy New Year!

You can read this also at: http://telegraphng.com/2013/12/new-year-resolution/