Wednesday, January 25, 2012

New Year Resolutions (Alternative Title: Foolish Hopes)


As a child, and even as an adolescent, I was wise and mature. As I grow older however, I am becoming more childish and immature with each passing year, and seem to be regressing both emotionally and mentally. Nowhere is this more evident than in the fact that when I was younger, I refused to make New Year resolutions, knowing that I wouldn’t keep them anyway. But all the wisdom of my childhood and teens vanished as I entered into my twenties; and now, even though I’m well on my way to bidding farewell to my twenties, I refuse to learn from the failures of the past years, and continue to doggedly make resolutions.

After much reflection, I decided that there was a woeful lack of discipline in my life, and that it had caused a fair amount of frustration and misery in the past couple of years. Yes, it took me this long to reach that conclusion. Anyway. So I decided that the theme for 2012 was going to be DISCIPLINE. With a capital D. Oh, well, I guess you got that already.

So my resolutions this year are centred on bringing more discipline into various aspects of my life, both personal and professional. And today I’m going to list them out on this blog in the hope that making them public will pressurise me into putting more effort to stick to them.

1.      Eat healthy
I have very unhealthy eating habits and have been working to change it for the last couple of years, with limited success. I’ve decided to keep track of what I eat on a daily basis so that I have a better idea of what is going into my body. Also, I’m going to try to generally eat more of the good foods and less of the bad foods.
·         Eat more of greens, vegetables and fruits. Try to drink milk once a day. Try to drink at least two litres of water every day. Try eating something green at least once a week. Ideally, try to eat something every 2-3 hours. Snack on fruits and nuts instead of junk food.
·         Cut down on the unhealthy foods. Not more than 600ml of cola a week. Not more than two single scoops of ice-cream/one sundae a week. Not more than one visit to a coffee shop in a week. Cut down on biscuits, chocolates, pastries, puffs and other snacks. Replace regular oil with olive oil.

2.      Work out
This is a resolution that I have been struggling to keep up for the last couple of years. The goal is to work out atleast 3 times a week – I could potentially do yoga, badminton, swimming or aerobics. I don’t need to lose weight but I definitely want to be fit and toned, and look good for the beach at the end of the year.

3.      Take better personal care
Now this is the resolution that I have been most successful with in the last couple of years; and through this resolution, I have managed to incorporate a lot of small (and seemingly silly) changes in taking care of myself. For this year, I am going to try to: brush my teeth twice a day, floss every day, take my multi-vitamins daily, oil my hair once a week, moisturise thoroughly, use a face pack/scrub once a week, and visit the salon regularly.

4.      Write regularly
For the longest time, I believed that one either has a flair for writing or one doesn’t, and that’s that. But I’ve come to appreciate that just like any other skill, writing takes time, effort and practice. And that working on your writing is what makes one a better writer, not sitting at the laptop and waiting for inspiration to strike. So my resolution is to write more regularly (at least three times a week) and put more thought and effort into my writing than I currently do.

5.      Learn new things
I have realised that in the last few years I haven’t learnt anything new. Not a single damn thing. And it makes me so ashamed of myself. Especially because there are so many things I want to learn and so do! So this year I am going to make an effort to learn on new thing. So this year I am going to focus on: learning to tie a saree, learning to cook/bake, learning to swim, learning a foreign language and learning to drive on real roads (as opposed to imaginary roads without any traffic). I will be happy to achieve at learn at least two of these skills.  

6.      Function more efficiently
I am quite the Queen of Procrastination. I leave everything till the very last minute, and then scramble to finish things on time. The good part is that I work best under pressure and can always be counted on to meet tight deadlines. At my earlier job, I was the go-to person for last minute work and urgent proposals. The bad part about it is that it leads to stress, tension and general negativity that I can do very well without. Now this procrastination is not limited to my professional life but extends to my personal life as well – I am very lax about responding to calls, emails, doing favours I have promised to do etc.

So this year I am going to work on being more efficient – both professionally and personally. At the beginning of every day, I am going to make a list of things I need to finish on that particular day and I will not leave office till I finish it off – that way, I will be under pressure to finish my work for the day and not take work home. Every weekend, I will make a list of errands to be done for the weekend, and ensure I finish them off that very weekend rather than postpone it for the weekend that never comes. I am also going to make an effort to respond to all personal calls and emails before I hit the bed.

Now wish me luck for this one!

7.      De-clutter
This has been one of my resolutions for 2011 as well, and I did rather well on this front. Last year, the aim of de-cluttering my life was to not store/buy things I did not need in my life. The move to Hyderabad was very helpful because I gave away a lot of things I did not use before packing up and moving. And since then, I ask myself ‘do I need this?” before making even the simplest of purchases. Except books; they have been my only indulgence this year, and quite frankly, I don’t care to cut down on that.

This year, my resolution is to simply continue with the de-clutter mantra and question myself before making any purchase. I am also going to give away clothes, books and other things that I don’t need anymore. Most importantly, I am going to work on building a lifestyle where I simply don’t need so many things anymore.

So those are my resolutions for 2012. Wish me luck in keeping them. Oh, and what are your resolutions for this year?

5 comments:

Revati Upadhya said...

Im so with you on points 1,2,4,7. And the whole introduction to why you got there? Its ditto for me. Its funny how I know/read so many girls in their late twenties who seem to be going through the same phase. With the need to be efficient, declutter and get some discipline in the more basic aspects of life that we seem to have lost track of..
More power to us! I hope you manage to achieve everything you plan to. Its been 1.5 months into 2012, and I cant say im faring very well. But theres 11 months ahead for improvement I guess..

Ramya said...

I think maybe we are so involved with the business of living life, and since we have made our lives so complicated with multiple interests and commitments, we have let go of these basic aspects of life. And new years is as good a time as any for a much needed wake up call.

But yeah, 1.5 months into the new year, my record has been atrocious. Luckily, my birthday is coming up soon and I am using that to reinforce my resolutions.

Unknown said...

Ok, I need every one of these! Stealing your new year resolutions! :D

Anonymous said...

Hello Ramya! Came here from Mad Momma's blog - your comment on sibling love was spot on! :) It reminded me so much of me and my sister :D
You have a nice blog here - will be reading more often! :)

Ramya said...

@Vandhana: You're welcome to steal them :D

@perspectivesandprejudices: Hey....welcome here and thanks for the kind words :)

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