Resolutions: A Follow-Up

Yesterday, in my “Held Accountable” post, I wrote about New Year’s resolutions and argued for worthy commitments to change, suggesting others encourage and support the people who make such resolutions. I even set forth my own 2016 resolution.

Later in the day, I looked back to see what I had previously written about resolutions. On January 1, 2013, I wrote a post entitled Respect New Year Resolutions, suggesting my mockery of the practice ended earlier than I thought it did.  In 2014, I wrote I Resolve to Have a Happy New Year, actively discouraging the practice of mocking those who make resolutions. Last year, in 2015, I did not address resolutions on the first day of the year.

I remember, though, and it hasn’t been too many years ago, that I mocked the concept. Or did I? Did I mock the practice of making resolutions at the beginning of the year, or did I simply pretend to find the practice silly? I’m beginning to think I have always felt as I do now, that serious declarations of intent to change for the better should be not only announced, but supported. I think I may have simply bent to attitudes around me. Today, I think it makes sense to enlist others’ help in achieving resolutions.

But that’s where the problems arise. Some people, even people close to us, just aren’t supportive the way we might wish them to be. Instead of offering words of encouragement and moral support, they mock the tradition of New Year’s resolutions as silly and absurd.

The occasional encounter with a person who ridicules the practice of making resolutions would not be hard to overcome; but when the ridicule begins to trend on social media, it begins to take on the role of intended obstacle. That notwithstanding, I would recommend to the person making resolutions: ignore the tide of people simply going with the flow of uninformed opinion. Yesterday, I gave my reasons for supporting people who make resolutions. There’s not much more I can add here, except this: do not to be bowed.