It’s Called Free Will For a Reason
There are a lot of classic year-end resolutions made during this time of the year. But there is a big difference between the commitments we make and the actions we take.
We say the words with good intentions and try to make sense of them according to the personal significance they have upon our feelings, our emotions, our vanity, and our present state of mind at a specific moment in time. And, for some of us, the more often you hear new year resolutions, the less faith you have in the commitments. As we grow older the process seems more old-style, a nominative comment made as a simple gesture in the holiday spirit of auld lang syne.
And, of course, a new year’s resolution is often misunderstood as a promissory note. Not that those who interpret it that way can necessarily define exactly what a promissory note is.
For most of us, a new year’s commitment is a combination of, say, bringing in the new year and what the heck, let’s make up something that will make us feel good about ourselves and give us reason to raise our glasses in a celebrative toast.
I happen to believe that a New Year’s resolution is little more than a transitive, so rather than thinking through our new year’s resolution, there is an awkwardness that comes from the natural disfluency of the human mind. It is hard enough to conjure up something grand and impressive, especially if your friends have spent the entire year getting ready for this moment.
So rather than saying something that truly expresses the profundity of our commitment to this special occasion, we make up something that will commit us to do that which we have not seriously thought out, a pledge to which we have not given serious consideration, nor do we have a strategy necessary to make the resolution happen.
It’s not the mere inclination of the head but rather the sudden pricking up of the ambition which has driven us to this present state of insanity.
So, in light of all this, why make a resolution in the first place? Perhaps the answer is that without the resolution, we lose a sense of the formality that makes a New Year’s celebration special in the first place.
So why should we allow a brief expression of free will, made in the heat of the moment when passion and celebration are at the peak of excitement ruin the rest of our year?
Anyway, if we’re going to make a new year’s resolution, doesn’t it make sense to be bold and self-assured? After all, isn’t that what everyone else in the room is doing?
Like many a holiday reveler, a good new year’s resolution is one that makes us feel good about ourselves. It’s human nature.
So during this New Year’s resolution keep in mind that you are allowed to dream big, to enable your imagination to take you to places you have never been. There are worse things that could happen to you than falling short of your new year’s goal. A new year’s resolution is an expression of free will and it called free will for a good reason.
