Is this a Western tradition to create new year’s resolutions?
Not sure, but it’s great way to start fresh. Set goals and how you shall achieve them. There are so many talks about how to set goals and how not to fail and why do they fail etc.
This tradition has been around for many years. Since the time of the Babylonian and the Romans.
Ancient people practiced the fine art of New Year’s resolutions, though their oaths were external, rather than internally focused. More than 4,000 years ago, the ancient Babylonians celebrated the New Year not in January, but in March, when the spring harvest came in. The festival, called Akitu, lasted 12 days.
An important facet of Akitu was the crowning of a new king, or reaffirmation of loyalty to the old king, should he still sit on the throne. Special rituals also affirmed humanity’s covenant with the gods; as far as Babylonians were concerned, their continued worship was what kept creation humming. Many look at the new year’s resolutions as a tool for self improvement and having a sense of direction. Some of us are ambitious when we set them and so when we fail or don’t accomplish exactly what we set out to do we are disappointed.
Intentions are better than resolutions as they have room for flexibility and they are not so rigid.
You can create an intention for something and work hard towards it and at the same time you relinquish the control over the outcome. Intentions can be as simple as, ‘I am kind towards everyone I come across. I will check in before I go to bed to see if was I kind for the day?’ Or it can be ‘I intend to finish my Master’s degree by September this year and in order to get there I shall do these things.’
The goal of resolutions and intentions is the same, however if you don’t get there as far or as much as you set out to, the blow is gentle with intentions rather than resolutions.
Here are a few of our intentions at Sanskar Teaching this year, share with us what are yours?:
Make Gujarati learning more fun and readily available. Create awareness and respect for Gujarati languageLaunch free products to spread this love for Gujarati culture. Plan our first field trip for our students to Gujarat, India this December.
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