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| Image taken from www.the-joy-of-living.com |
by Susan Palmes-Dennis
Do you usually make New Year’s resolutions? If your answer is yes then you are like me and the rest of this world. We all make resolutions every year.
And I am reminded of this question since three days from now it would be 2015. My practice of making New Year's resolutions started long ago when I was a pupil of Tagoloan Central Pilot School.
You see, after Christmas vacation my class would be asked by our teachers to write paragraphs of how we spent our Christmas vacations and our respective New Year’s resolutions.
I think it was then Miss Realina Tapulgo now Mrs. Dalapag who would ask these questions. She was our Grade 5 teacher in charge. Since then it has become habit every year for me.
Many of the resolutions are actually those that we failed to fulfill last year or in previous years that were recycled in the present. Of course there are new stuff--those that are imbued with energy and are achievable goals.
Justification
Most of the resolutions revolve around fixing one's personal life, faith, love and recently health.
As I grow older I call these goals or resolves to jumpstart the future. I also call them guides or personal GPS. There are resolutions that are grandiose and unrealistic.
Some of these new plans are joining a gym to get fit, writing one page a day for my column Straight from the Carolinas /(apologies to Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro editor-in-chief Grace Albasin) keeping up with one's inbox, walking, eating less, studying and saving money.
The lists are long and filled with so many ideas. But those I mentioned I consider doable and can really be done if the will is strong.
But as most of us know, the novelty wears off as we get bored and discouraged in the coming days and we make all the justification in the world on why we stop doing it.
Simple
We’re suddenly confronted with the daily challenge of sustaining our goals. Unexpected events throw us off course. We need to stay late at work, we can’t leave our smart phone or a relative gets sick.
One day of missing that goal then leads to missing the next day and the next day, until we feel defeated and our goal is abandoned. I admit I am one of those who would do some and forget some.
So this year I am making resolutions that are simple and short term. Topping my list of resolutions is to finish reading the Bible and following the doctor’s advice.
To make this more interesting I asked some friends if they still believe in New Year's resolutions.
Yes they still believe- in fact one of them Lynn Wolfe started one resolution last year about using Facebook less and I think she is still figuring out if she would do it. Anyway some of the answers I got from my friends are interesting.
Determination
Mayette Rivera Bailey of Orlando, Florida still believes in New Year’s resolutions. “I would eat less because I am diabetic,” Bailey said.
Many of us really work religiously on our health in the first days of the year but eventually stop in the middle of the year. But some like Mayette would continue doing it. It all depends on one's will and determination.
Mayette also wants to reduce her time on Facebook. It remains to be seen but that resolution is also shared by another Fil-American Lynn Lim Wolfe, my town mate now based in Chicago.
“Last year less FB because sometimes I can't fulfill what I set out to do because I always face the PC but I try to avoid it,” she said. Wolfe admitted that she had given up on making New Year's resolutions because it's hard to achieve no matter what one does.
You might even consider making your own New Year’s resolution to become more resilient, to better able to find solutions and maintain your overall determination in all that you do.
Sticking with your plan
Resolve not to let small setbacks – or even large ones – throw you off your game. Once you resolve to find a healthy determination and mindset to tackle problems one by one, you’ll be mentally and spiritually re-charged.
Go ahead, set realistic goals, but also set an extra one – the goal of sticking with your plan when the going gets tough.
Another Fil-Am friend of mine, Nelissa Beth Perez Kremer of Virginia has this to share. “My New Year's resolution is to give more meaning and action to what I desire.”
When asked to expound she explained that she wanted to help others and give back to society.
“I will focus more in helping students in the remote areas in the Philippines. I was reminded of my childhood schooldays when my niece told me on the phone she cried at school because she was unable to finish copying the teacher’s lesson from the blackboard,” she said.
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| Lynn Polk with her grandchildren |
Kremer, who hails from Boog, Pagadian City in Mindanao, Philippines, cannot believe that until now Filipinos back home still have to write down notes. Here in the U.S. students are provided with photocopy lessons for the day.
“I will save some dollars and help one school buy a copier or maybe there will be some generous fellas who will help me with my project,” Kremer said.
Lastly, there's this input from Lynn Lorenzo-Polk: “ My New Year's resolution is to make someone's life better, in any way I can. I'm going to focus on that”
I would add their resolutions to my list for next year. Thanks Lynn Polk, Nelissa Beth Perez Kremer,Lynn Wolfe and Mayette Rivera Bailey for your valuable inputs.
(Susan Palmes-Dennis is a veteran journalist from Cagayan de Oro City, Misamis Oriental, Northern Mindanao in the Philippines who worked as a nanny and is now employed as a sub-teacher and a part-time teacher assistant in one of the school systems in the Carolinas.
Read her blogs on susanpalmesstraightfrom the Carolinas.com and at http://www.blogher.com/myprofile/spdennis54. These and other articles also appear at http://www.sunstar.com.ph/author/2582/susan-palmes-dennis.
You can also connect with her through her Pinterest account at http://www.pinterest.com/pin/41025046580074350/) and https://www.facebook.com/pages/Straight-from-the-Carolinas-/494156950678063)
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