New Year Dreaming


It’s difficult not to get swept up by the tide of reviews, resolutions and manifestos at this time each year. It’s part of our tendency to try to bring order to chaos, to fashion meaning from the meaningless. In reality, today is just another day; no different to any other, save for the ideas we attach to it.

Looking out over Hrazdan valley

Having said that, my New Year’s Resolutions are thus:

  • To arrive at the end of the year and feel that there is nothing that is in sudden need of special attention
  • To accomplish this by paying careful attention to what’s important, enjoyable and worthwhile, 365 days a year
  • To shun the target-fixated mentality — especially prominent here in London — in favour of an attitude that brings fulfilment from the process, not from some far-off imagined result
  • To continue to avoid building unnecessary structures around life (career, financial obligation, schedule, ownership, competition) that pretend to provide convenience, progress and meaning, but instead bring restriction, stifle spontaneity and breed resentment
  • To continue this adventurous existence which has brought so much joy and intrigue, remembering that it came about through plenty of toil and introspection
  • To go further than I have been thus far — not in terms of physical feats, which don’t interest me, but in the realm of communication, exploration and tenacity.

So much for abstract resolutions. These are things I already practice every day. Long may it continue.

Why are we only willing to change the things we dislike about ourselves on 1 of the 365 days we have available to us every year?

Is it an honest guilt we feel about our perceived failings, or should we stop taking ourselves too seriously?

Can we, our imperfect selves, just learn to be happy with this imperfect world, and get on with living in it?

Let’s see facing up to these questions and challenges as a positive thing, and make doing so our resolution for 2012.