MAKING A DIFFERENT KIND OF NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTION

Did you make a New Year’s resolution? 

You are not alone.  According to recent research, about 45 percent of Americans stated they usually make these resolutions, but only 8 percent are successful in reaching their goals.  (1)  

One usually reflects on the previous year and ponders what could be improved to make one’s life better.  Maybe it is to break a bad habit?  Improve a relationship?  Lose weight? Exercise more?  Historians surmise the ancient Babylonians started the tradition about 4,000 years ago in mid-March, not January, when the crops were planted.  They made promises to pay their debts and return any objects they had borrowed. 

In ancient Rome, Julius Caesar adjusted the calendar to mark January 1 as the start of the new year around 46 B.C.  The month of January had been named in the honor of the Roman God of doorways and arches, Janus, who exhibited two faces.  One symbolically looked backward to the previous year while the other looked forward to the future. (2)  

Our New Year’s resolutions tend to be reflective.  What about advancing our gaze in the future? 

During my undergraduate days, I heard Mahatma Gandhi’s grandson, Arun Manilal Gandhi, speak at our university.  Franky, I do not remember everything he said.  But I do remember this story he shared about his grandfather.  As you may remember, the elder Gandhi used non-violent means for India to gain its independence from Great Britain in 1947.  Mahatma Gandhi traveled the train frequently across India.  One day, he and a companion were running to catch a train.  They caught it.  However, Gandhi left a sandal on the track as he was running.  Without thinking and to the astonishment of his friend, he threw the other sandal near the other one.  His companion asked why.  Gandhi responded that the man who finds the one sandal will now have a pair that he can use.  

In her article, Journeys and Generations:  Tending the Professional Self, Jill Gardner asked her readers, “What can I pass along to the people who come after? (p. 410).”  In her ending, she concluded, “I think this means give back, be a blessing to others, help the people behind you on their journey (p. 418).” (3)

What will we leave behind us so others can find that is useful to them?  How will we resolve helping the people coming after us on their journey?  How can we be a blessing to others?

The Institute for Clinical Social Work is helping me to make and keep a different kind of New Year’s resolution by investing in others and leaving something behind for them on their journey.  

References:

(1)  https://www.history.com/news/the-history-of-new-years-resolutions

(2)  https://www.history.com/news/the-history-of-new-years-resolutions

(3)  Gardner, J. (2015), Journeys and Generations:  Tending the Professional Self.  International Journal of Psychoanalytic Self Psychology, 10:408-420.

Matthew Benorden, PhD student at the Institute for Clinical Social Work