In Theory:

What are your resolutions for the new year?

Each new year brings a new exhilaration of hope. As another new year approaches, the marker in time triggers us to reflect on last year’s unaccomplished goals. It is a chance to start over again with a new allotment of hope that this year will actually be different. Oddly enough, our resolutions become quite repetitive. After a while, the roller coaster ride of hope and failure can turn into cynicism, and we just stop playing the yearly resolution game. In my view, whether it’s New Year’s or any other occasion, we should not turn our backs on the hope for forward progress in our lives.

The most common New Year’s resolutions are rooted in our desire for virtue.

They include our goals for health, elimination of vice (smoking or substance abuse), more focus on family, doing more charity, etc. But lofty resolutions cannot sustain themselves unless there is a means to maintain hope. A large source of disappointment in the resolution cycle comes from a lack of continuous resolve.

One can consult a whole host of great psychology and self-help literature on winning strategies to make and attain goals, but the source of persistent hope comes from faith in addition to the practical knowledge of applied psychology. Seeking knowledge needs to be supplemented by daily prayer, scripture reading and fellowship in faith from religious services, to name a few means of support that organized religion offers.

Our faith can bring a practical means to help us achieve our everyday goals, and organized religion provides an ongoing structure to nurture our personal goals on the path of self-improvement.

The Koran in chapter 103 teaches us about time and hope, “Consider the flight of time, verily mankind is in a state of loss, except for those who attain to faith, and do good works, and join together in the mutual teachings of truth, and patience in adversity.” One lesson I derive from this short chapter is that time is our most precious commodity. Hope is our energy source, and we will be lost without faith. Our hope for a better tomorrow is sustained by our faith put into action through good deeds, seeking the truth, and patience. These are the means to maintain our emotional resiliency through our failures and overcoming difficulties along the way.