When the clock strikes twe­lve, the phone screen ill­uminates the numbers 2019.

It’s a new year. We all breathe and grin. The moment means different things to different people. Some would hug their loved ones and wish them. Some will shoot texts to the whole contact list as a ritual. Some will simply sleep the night away.

The New Year’s Eve is like an unread book of three sixty-five days. Some die of the suspense, some judge it by its cover and some simply shelf it. At New Year’s Eve, every eye glistens with a tint of hope and a ‘maybe this year’ heart murmurs.

It’s that time of year again, a new one. It’s the time of year when we sign up for gym memberships to finally shed the extra 13 pounds we have put on. It’s the time of the year when we toss the sugary scones away. It’s the time of the year when we promise to organise the closet every week. It’s also the time of the year when we pledge to turn over a new leaf and be our best. But the question is why this time of the year? Why not every time of the year?

What is it about the New Year’s Eve that makes one so passionate, so full of energy? Is it the blinging fairy lights all over the place? The fireworks? The ‘out with the old in with the new’ anthem?

There is nothing about the knowledge that the Earth has travelled a complete circle around the sun that urges me to look critically at the way I live my life.

I can’t say that I understand the hubbub that surrounds New Year’s resolutions. Some make resolutions on the basis of “I really need to do this” and some struggle to even pinpoint their resolutions. But reality check calls in for most people — ‘promises are meant to be broken”. Rumour has it that most of the New Year resolutions do not even get past January.

Why do we break the resolutions? Because we are so overzealous at the time we make it. It breaks when the New Year eve’s excitement fades. Maybe we should bury the phrase ‘New Year, new me’.

One doesn’t need a resolution to improve oneself, to shatter the glass ceiling. As it is famously said: “Everything happens according to your clock.”

That clock is not necessarily the New Year eve’s. It’s just the frame of mind, a change from within, which has no designated point to reach. A change which uplifts you, not a change which is scheduled to start by January one.

The question is how to make the upcoming year better than the former?

Let me tell you how. In my view, resolutions are broken because of their uncanny nature too. If the resolutions are more practical, then they are easier to be achieved. One needs to get this sorted first.

Make a plan. Be a good critic of yourself, analyse, think and change. The following changes are what one needs to make:

Embrace peace

So many different voices around the world want an end to the wars. And these wars are not just actual battles fought by soldiers but those conditions that result from discrimination, racism, injustice and other social wrongs. The desperation is not limited to one country, but people all over the world feel the need to embrace peace and live life without the fear of war and unrest.

Some fight the war from within and some go external. One needs to promise oneself to avoid the drama, avoid the fight and try to make amends. Peace should be the answer to every war.

Forgive

This New Year should be about forgiving and forgetting. It should be a year which gives credence to second chances, the ability to get past toxic situations and create flexibility in one’s self. Being rigid only breaks you.

The world would be so different if more people had the ability to look beyond themselves, and see how much better the world would be if each person strives to do something for the good of everyone. The change within us should lead to some change, for the better, beyond ourselves. Then only it will be ‘new year, new me’.

Published in Dawn, Young World, November 29th, 2018