New Year, Old Me

When I was still in school uniforms, I was told about something called new year's resolution and was even encouraged to make these silly statements about what you want to achieve in the new year. That is all fine and good, except that they forgot to tell me exactly how should I go about achieving it. Needless to say, there was no improvement in my life in any meaningful way. So I learnt early on in life never to trust well-meaning adults who gave only the intro but left out the nut-and-bolts of what they say. 

The year I finally finished my formal schooling, someone whom I met at a casual gathering after new year ran out of conversation topic and decided to ask: "So, what's your new year's resolution?" He looked expectantly at me, hoping that I would pick up the conversation ball and keep it rolling. He was a nice guy but he asked the wrong question. "My new year's resolution is not to have any resolution at all!" was my reply. We blinked at each other for a second and looked away awkwardly. He was probably thinking that I ought to make "Learn social grace" as my new year's resolution.

Since then, I have been living a new-year-resolution-free life for almost twenty years and would probably continue to do so until I kicked the bucket. However, that doesn't mean that I don't make resolutions at all.

The surprising thing about not making a new year's resolution is that I can make a resolution at any time I want instead of waiting for the new year to come around. There was one day when I woke up and decided that I need to start my skincare routine if I don't want to look like a withered orange by the time I blew the fortieth candle on my cake. That day was definitely not January. And then there was another day when I decided that I would clean up our eating habits and move towards healthier eating after being sick of falling sick all the time. That was not in January either. And I am glad to say that all these not-made-in-January resolutions stuck with me till today.

There are still many on-going projects in my self-improvement department because I believe that life is a work-in-progress and I can make tomorrow better than today.







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