New Year, New Resolutions: Moving Forward to a Better You!
Toronto-Canada
January 17, 2020
Masaganang Bagong Taon! Happy New Year to all and to my compatriots and my contemporaries! What the year 2019 that was! Did the year 2020 start with a bang or a whimper? I don't know. What I know is that 2020 begins a new decade in our very challenging environment. People, I believe, before welcoming the New Year somehow have commenced thinking and writing resolutions. Resolutions, hopefully, to be kept faithfully or to be broken unabashedly.
Others put out resolutions as goals to reach as well as expectations to meet or to pursue "no matter what". Whatever and whichever, resolutions made for the coming days and months will surely serve as a "plan of action" to one's desire and determination to try, to follow-through and to achieve with high hopes for a good measure of success.
The transition to 2020 holds important and special considerations to us as participants, players, leaders or observers in our growing Filipino Canadian community. Again, the new year will hold a special spot in our hearts and minds to move forward and face the challenges and opportunities presented before us. It is the time for sudden, unforeseen changes, the time of learning, the time for building, the time for improving and the time for creating wealth and for growing wisdom.
The start of a new calendar year is a time for reflection and new beginnings. It prompts us to rethink how we make choices and spend our time and helps us to re-prioritize what matters most to us in the near future. Even if you’re a proponent of living every month with intention whether it’s the start of another year or not, the New Year is still a great reminder to do so.
Life gets busy every waking hour, so each day and year it’s helpful to reflect on where you are headed and where you would like to go. If those two destinations differ, then it may be a great opportunity for you to select a New Year’s resolution and set your new course — you and your health deserve it. There is so much that goes into one’s well-being and physical needs. With that in mind, it is good to set a plan or make a resolution for personal health and happiness for the days ahead.
In general, the most popular or traditional New Year’s resolutions are saving money; exercising to get in shape; monitoring my health; helping others; travelling outside the country; dieting to lose weight; eating healthier food; learning a skill; vacationing more; doing volunteer work; getting a new or a part-time job; learning to dance or sing; strengthening my faith; and doing something for personal development. Of course, there are easy- and- difficult types of resolutions to keep and keep going such as learning a hobby or reading more. On the other side, healthy eating or diet changes are perhaps the most difficult to hold onto. No matter how easy or difficult it can be to keep a resolution over the 365-day year, it is expected that those who "promised" are able to keep theirs for one month or for six months while others are able to make permanent changes before another new year comes. This is very good. Or sadly, as you read this piece now, perhaps you already have broken one or more of your resolutions!
2020, akin to a perfect vision test, will be an exciting year for many reasons — the most important of which is that it’s another year for anybody to keep building a healthy, happy, and full life. New Year’s resolutions are a great way to jumpstart that process. Have you already or have not yet decided yet on your New Year’s resolutions? Try one, resolve and do it! Bagong Taon! Bagong Buhay! ( Tony A. San Juan, OCT-Ret.)