New Year is just around the corner and I am already guilt-ridden because of the resolutions and the promises that will surely fall by the way side.
By the way, it is unfair that a year should have only 12 months or a day have only 24 hours. How can anyone complete anything that they resolved to do in such a short time? My habits have been honed and polished over the years and trying to change myself all over again within a year is asking for the impossible.
Take January for instance, that will start after this month. After a night-long revelry, shouting, dancing in the streets and screaming with the fireworks, the morning after New Year’s day will be January 2.
By the time you make yourself a nice hot cup of coffee and nurse a throbbing head, it will suddenly be March.
Time has a creepy way of, well, creeping along, leaving you suddenly lurching in June, even as you start buying all the stuff that will make you a better human being; stuff such as fluorescent green trainers, organic nuts, a moleskin diary and getting those Botox shots.
By the time I put on my running shoes, it is August and I am now in panic mode as there are only four months left in the year. Flipping through my diary, I see that the first entry in the New Year was made on January 5: “You are going to do it this year, do you hear?” I had exhorted myself. The only problem is that I am not really sure what I was supposed to be doing. I had presumed I would remember whatever it was.
Somebody had once advised me that journaling is a good idea. Always write it down, she said. You will never regret keeping a diary, she said.
Being philosophical
Back to my diary and I see that the second entry was made on February 12. I seemed a bit apologetic in this entry and there was a hurried explanation that I was very busy and that there was no time to go jogging every day, all of the last month.
The entry on February 13, a day later, said I was being philosophical. The entry was made to keep my spirits up as I continued battling with myself as the days passed: “The road to success is always under construction — Lily Tomlin”, it said.
People usually write down stuff that helps inspire them, but what did this mean? Was I thinking about Dubai’s roads when I wrote that, I wondered. Did it mean that I would never reach my destination unless I did something? What was I supposed to do?
The next entry in the diary was in April. It was not exactly an entry, but accounts for some vague purchases I made online, most probably a video game.
After August, there was complete silence, but there were stick figures and doodles drawn on the pages until December, where an entry was trying to hide. It said: “Why should I change? I am happy the way I am,” and there was a drawing of what I presume is a chocolate cupcake.
There are many strange customs around the world to ring in the New Year, such as wearing red underwear and walking the streets in South America. It is supposed to bring your true love to you. I am not sure which colour underwear you have to flaunt if you want money in the coming 12 months.
But if you wish to be a better human being this New Year, smile more often, advises one mind doctor. Embrace change, he says, and get out of your comfort zone, try new things and help others when you can.
Mahmood Saberi is a freelance journalist based in Dubai. You can follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/@mahmood_saberi
