A new year and a new you

On the first day of the year you are filled with optimism that the year ahead would change your world in a big way and change it for better. You wish that the new year solves all your problem; that your rouge kids would behave themselves; that your fat, old wife would turn into a delicate arm candy; that your ever ill tempered and aloof boss would acknowledge your work; that you would get a long standing promotion and finally be able to make that trip to Goa you had always promised your kids. The wish list can go on as human desires know no limits.

But if you paid a little more attention to your wish list you discover a certain pattern in it.

In all your well-intentioned wishes, there never figures the desire for self change. While you believe that the New Year would usher in a dramatic change in your life, amending the people around and transforming the circumstances you find yourself in, you never ask for a change in yourself.

Are you perfect? Is there nothing in you that you would do better without in this new year.

You may think of yourself as a near perfect creation of God. You may no fault with yourself and blame all your misfortune on someone. You may deceive the world, but can you deceive yourself?

For once and all before beginning a new year with hopes of change, close your eyes and rewind the year in your mind. You would find that many a nasty fights could have been avoided and many a mishaps evaded if only you were a little less arrogant and a little more careful. A handful such teeny weenie corrections in yourself might just change the world around you in the way you had wanted it to be.

You spend hours discussing what’s wrong with others and believe all is well with you.

In our self-obsession, we neglect a vital activity of our life- self discovery. Introspection and not self-obsession will help us invent ourselves.

let this year be the year of real change. Utilise the newness of this year to rediscover and re-invent yourself. Otherwise this year would become as old and stale as the bygone one and you still find yourself as messed up, as discontent and as exasperated as ever. Gift yourself a brand new ‘you’ this New Year.