New Year resolutions are strange things; the majority of people make a grand list of “Things I Must Achieve For the New Year”, which by the end of said year are either half-heartedly half-fulfilled or lost somewhere amongst the sea of other tasks they picked up along the way. These illustrious lists tend to be populated by ambitious, yet good, statements such as Be more social and friendly at work or the ever-popular Keep fit and lose however many kilos by such-and-such a date.
If people don’t plan on really getting these things done, why make lists in the first place?
Because it makes us feel good, seeing those good-looking statements on paper and knowing we’ve got a year (“Oh, so much time!”) to get down and dirty with them.
The rush I personally get from aiming my life for a year is undeniably pleasurable. I count my chickens before they’re born, oh yes I do. :) If I resolve to lose weight, I gleefully imagine my skinnier, fitter self as I scribble the promise down. If I resolve to improve my singing technique, I allow my mind to wander towards the floating, soaring arias that I’d potentially sing! Why, if I resolve to do anything, I can do it! I feel like I’ve got the world in my grasp just sitting down at my desk, penning that grandiloquent list of feel-good (un)achievements.
So once again, with resolved steeled by the advent of the brand new year, I’ll remake my list, and (hopefully) get through at least half–never you mind that most of my “new” list was carried forward from last year’s.
Three days in already. Here’s to another new year! :))
Jade’s 2009 Resolutions: (in no particular order, maybe)
#1. Lose weight for my 21st birthday (yeah, you know this one), and KEEP IT OFF!
#2. Stay on track with my Bible readings to finish the Bible in 3 years!
#3. Organize my time better & keep my room clean–and not be late for anything anymore! (if I can help it, ha)
#4. Improve my singing stamina/technique and experiment with jazzier nuances.
#5. Become awesome at swing dancing (despite it being the 8-step that I must get used to!)
#6. Get into doing casual gigs with other like-minded musically-inclined friends.
#7. Interview my maternal & paternal grandparents to record their life story.
#8. Compose & record a song. :)) (Ming, do you see this?)
#9. Maintain my grades in med school (no, there isn’t a reason why STUDIES COME LAST, tee hee)
And that’s it! Nine short n’ sweet resolutions, for the year two thousand and nine (even though I cheated with #3 and put like 3 things in there). :) We’ll see by December if I’ve kept these at all.
Also, as an encouragement–I just want to share with you guys the verse my pastor received for 2009. It’s truly God’s answer and promise to any difficulties or obstacles that will come in the new year! I want to assure you that even if you feel like God’s abandoned you, it may just be that you’re not being still enough to tune in to His voice! :) Find the frequency–just be still in His presence. Ok, enough blabbering. Here it is, and God bless:
‘If calamity comes upon us, whether the sword of judgment, or plague or famine, we will stand in your presence before this temple that bears your Name and will cry out to you in our distress, and you will hear us and save us.’
- 2 Chronicles 20:09 (NIV)
And if you read further, you’ll find that: the battle is not ours–it is the Lord’s. Isn’t that amazing? :))
