I believe that in life, there are only two circumstances that help the normal average person on the street who is not on self-improvement induce positive change in their own lives. One of them, is essentially getting punched in the face metaphorically speaking. We live our lives in relative comfort, we have our family, we have our friends, our basic life needs are met, we aren’t starving out there on the streets living from day to day. This comfort breeds security, it makes you feel at ease, it makes you feel relaxed, but it is extremely pernicious. You don’t feel the need to improve, you don’t feel the drive to change your life for the better, you don’t experience the motivation to strive for your goals. Modern life makes you weak and docile. Why do we need to go out of our own way, to step outside of our own four walls of contentment to reach further in life so to speak? The status quo is fine.
For now.
I believe that suffering in life is inevitable. Sooner or later there is going to be a hurricane that comes by and destroy everything, to turn your world upside down. This hurricane of yours can manifest itself in various forms, it might be a cancer diagnosis, or perhaps one of your family members deceased. When all seems fine, these brutal life events come out of the blue, they sneak up on you when you least expect it and punch you in the face. And punch hard do they. Such catastrophic events, such adversity always send a person reeling in a fit of shock, all the while experiencing a cocktail of emotions, ranging from anger to sadness. There are two ways a person can react to such a gut wrenching occurrence. They can either spiral into depression, engaging in the degenerate activities such as video games, movies and social media, in order to escape from the reality that they do not wish to live in, or they can pick themselves up by the feet, and make some drastic changes in their lives. We often witness people living a life of degeneracy, of hedonism, without bearing even a fifth of a thought on their future, much less their own wellbeing. It is like viewing a train wreck seconds before disaster. It is painful, it is excruciating, and you cringe every muscle fibre in your body in preparation of the calamity that said person is going to experience. And the worst part is, you are helpless, you can do nothing to stop it. Some individuals just have to be punched in the face by life before they wake up to reality. No matter the countless dire warnings and reminders that you employ, they seemingly would not alter their habits and behaviours. Such instances are surely regrettable, for the simple reason that they could be avoided, or at the very least mitigated by a large degree if the person was cognisant of what was coming down the road. It is often times the case that such life changing events do act as a catalyst for maturity, and ultimately improving one’s life for the better.
The second circumstance, after that rathe lengthy tangent, is the title of this article: New year resolutions. We have this tendency of jibing a person for using new year resolutions. We laugh at them, as they attempt to change their lives for the better. I do urge everyone to refrain from doing so because these people are resolving to improve themselves. that requires a certain degree of self awareness which should be lauded and also celebrated. Making a change, that is drastic in one’s own life is often challenging, they often lack the discipline and motivation to follow through, so they need all the help and encouragement that they can get. While there is no better impetus to change in the world than getting punched in the face, the end of a year, I would say is a much better alternative, one that is much more pleasant. The end of the year gives a sense of finality, it is the end of a chapter of one’s life, and onwards to a new one. Our society attributes significant attention to the end of the year, which I would say can be leveraged quite nicely to introduce positive change. I believe everyone should make new year resolutions, but not in the wishy-washy manner that will be sure to result in a person failing immediately.
Most importantly, set the goals. The goals do have to be within the realm of your competency, they do have to be realistic. Next figure out possible impediments in regard to you achieving your goal and journal about the possible solutions that you can employ should such instances crop up. If your goal spans several months and that you fear that you might not have the willpower and tenacity to follow through, fret not. Just divide up your goal into smaller, manageable bite size goals that will aid you in keeping on track.