As defined by Albert Einstein insanity is “doing the same
thing over and over again and expecting different results”. By this definition
New Year’s resolutions are very insane. Each year we give ourselves an
ultimatum, a three hundred and sixty five step plan aimed on the betterment of
ourselves in one aspect or another where we find ourselves lacking. Each year
we fail to meet this ultimatum. We dive into our plans head first and go at it
in full force, doing everything in our power to procure immediate, inspiring
results. However, like the holiday spirit, our resolve fizzles out as January progresses.
More often than not by the time February first rolls around our resolutions
have been shelved in the deepest edifices of our guilty subconscious, far
enough out of the forefront to be ignored. By March they are all but a distant
memory. We slip back into our old ways and enjoy nine months of the life to which
we are predisposed until we find ourselves once again on the precipice of a new
year. This is the inevitable cycle of the New Year’s resolution.
Be it to exercise, eat better, drink less, go out more, volunteer
more or anyone of the host of resolutions which are made there is always a
reason not to follow it. Exercise begins to take a back seat to pleasure as the
relation of physiological reward to physical pain begins to deteriorate. Eating
better is often undermined by social activities and a lack of will power in the
face of the decadent delicacies of which we are depraved. The struggle of
drinking less is embodied by the social pressure one encounters on any endeavour
which alters ones social persona. Conversely increasing ones social life often
requires the disparagement of one’s moral or health obligations. Volunteering
more, naturally, requires the sacrifice of ones most valuable resource, time. As
one can plainly see every resolution worth making is enamoured with obstacles
that are often insurmountable. Herein lies the inherent insanity of
resolutions. The notion that because a goal is set on the first day of a year
it inherits a cosmic purpose inspiring a spontaneous increase in will power is
absurd. Setting a New Year’s resolution is plain and simple setting a goal.
However any true goal must be set in conjunction with a resolve to achieve it
which comes from an organic source within one’s self. Setting one simply because
of a tradition founded on a date derived from a calendar which records the
passage of man’s interpretation of time and expecting it to produce fruitful
and meaningful results is, by definition, insane.
