Resolutions: We need to make even though we know we won't keep them

The new year is only a week old and we have already failed to make good on some of our new year's resolutions: To exercise more, to lose weight, to be more tolerant of others, to read more and watch less TV.

The annual ritual of making resolutions comes naturally. With the turning over of a new calendar year we innately begin to think about our lives in longer terms and the need to improve ourselves in the short term.

We usually don't get much really accomplished (resolutions have a way of dying a quick death within a few weeks or months) but we believe it is good that people still make resolutions. They serve as a kind of compass that we re-set to each year, subconsciously perhaps, in order to keep ourselves propelled forward in life.

The new year is an exciting time, but part of that excitement comes from fear, what will the coming year bring? What new problems?  What new challenges? Maybe the resolutions are our way of countering those fears with renewed enthusiasm, with renewed hope. Things will get better, we tell ourselves, if for no other reason than we have resolved to give up smoking, or some other bad habit.

It would be good, of course, if we could make good on our resolutions. And some of us will. But it is even better that we want to make them in the first place -- whether we keep them for long or not.

Published in Editorials on January 7, 2017 4:22 PM