A New Year’s resolution is a tradition, most common in the Western Hemisphere, in which a person makes a promise to do an act of self-improvement or kindness. The self-improvement resolutions – like losing weight, drinking fewer glasses of wine, or exercising more seem to be the easiest to break and are quickly forgotten. Perhaps making a resolution to keep your resolutions like this poem suggests.
New Year’s Resolution
Resolve to renew all your old resolves,
And add a few that are new.
Resolve to keep them as long as you can,
What more can a poor man do.
A bit more ambitious is the following Resolution for Every Morning of the New
Year that appeared on a calendar by Bishop John H. Vincent in the early 20th century. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if everyone made and kept this resolution!?
“I will this day try to live a simple, sincere, and
serene life – repelling promptly every thought of
discontent, anxiety, discouragement, impurity and
self-seeking – cultivating cheerfulness, magnanimity,
charity, and the habit of holy silence – exercising
economy in expenditure, carefulness in conversation,
diligence in appointed service, fidelity to every trust
and a child-like trust in God.”
Perhaps a resolution even easier to keep is a simple, “I resolve to treat others the way I would like them to treat me.” Sometimes that is all that one needs to be remembered in the daily challenges of getting along with your neighbors and others.