Parsing the Language of New Year's Resolutions

Tick. Tock. It's almost 2012.

 Before the sand in the hourglass runs out, I hope you pause to reflect on your accomplishments this past year and acknowledge yourself for your good efforts.

You deserve some appreciation, after all.

Also I hope you make a list of some of the wonderful dreams you have for the next twelve months. Make this a wish list, not just a to-do list, of everything that would excite and fulfill you. Be very specific. Be bold. Dream big and in vibrant color. And write it all down . . . Then fold it up and tuck that list in your wallet or in a special place where you can revisit it at intervals throughout the year to come.

Worry about HOW to do those things you dream starting next week.

We've passed the solstice and now days are getting longer in the northern hemisphere. They will still get colder for a while, but the light will be slowly returning as we move toward spring. Nature is in charge. That alone is reason enough to feel optimistic, isn't it? Good things are coming!

Take the opportunity New Year's Day brings this weekend to set some resolutions in place. Resolved means a decision has been reached. It means there's no internal waffling. Here's the definition.

Resolved (adjective): 1. determined, single-minded; 2. explained, answered, solved.

Latin root: resolvere, resolutum, to untie, loosen, relax, enfeeble, loosen, dissolve.

In general, I am more interested in determination than enfeeblement. However, I can see why the enfeeblement of a few poor habits would do me some good. In 2012, I am determined to enfeeble my habit of staying up much too late at night watching episodes of old sci-fi series on Hulu and Netflix. Goodbye, Battlestar Galactica. Goodbye, Torchwood. Hello, sleep!

This year I am determined to stay on top of my workload and not fall behind. Already a nifty plan is falling into place whereby this is possible. I caught up just last week and feel pretty darn proud of myself. That's a nice way to shift into focusing on a whole new set of projects in the coming year.

A resolution gives me an opportunity to be decisive. Before decision, confusion. After decision, action. I hereby resolve (and you're my witness) to get my body back in tip-top condition by my birthday in October. I imagine this 40-week project will involve (a cousin of resolve) getting back into yoga class and opening up my shoulders and hips, building up my cardiovascular system and the musculature of my feet and legs to a point where I can run again--maybe even doing a few road races for the sheer pleasure of participation, AND getting my ass back in tango class.

Got to drop some weight. I'm resolved to clean up my diet. I know what to do; now I just have to commit to doing it. I need to be single-minded about it. The noun resolution means many things, including "a course of action determined or decided upon." Planning for success is the key!

Did you know that a resolution in music is the progression from a dissonant chord or tone to a consonant chord or tone? Wow! That parallels the sensation that comes from mental resolution. When I'm of two minds about something (unresolved) I don't feel harmonious at all. Once I'm resolved, my body relaxes and my energy hones in like a beacon on my path.

In medicine, resolution is the subsiding of an abnormal condition like a fever or inflammation. Can we agree that we don't feel quite well when we're not firmly fixed on our goals and course of action? When we're undecided we might as well have a fever for all the clarity of purpose we feel. Makes me believe that if I have a look around at what's "abnormal" in my life--meaning, places where I'm not flowing and conditions are unharmonious--I can resolve them.

Oh, yes! I am resolved to establish a healthy balance of work and play. I love my work enough that it often feels like play. For me the distinguishing component of work is the exchange of money in return for an obligation on my part, whereas play can be whimsical and impulsive: If I drop my play activities no one has the right to complain--it's all for the love and fun of it.

Choice, people. Year 2012 is about our choices. Now, in physics and chemistry, resolution has a slightly different feel and sense, but perhaps we can borrow from this definition, too, as it applies to firmly settling upon a clear course of action. In the hard sciences, resolution is the act or process of separating or reducing something into its constituent parts (like white light divides into the full spectrum of colors). What are the constituent parts of our decisions? Action steps, I think.

Simplification, reduction, mysteries explained, fineness of detail . . . resolution. Before resolution, generalities. After resolution, specificities. Life is simpler once we've selected from our options. Being resolved about the past and setting a resolution for the future enables us to relax now.

Sweet.