I'm going to let you in on a secret. Last New Year's Eve, I arrived home well before midnight to an empty apartment. Armed with scripture and prayer, I pulled out a book to write my goals for the year. By the stroke of midnight, I had two pages of what seemed to be inspired resolutions. I truly believed I could cross off even the most ridiculous ones on the list. Nine months later, a bulk of the resolutions have been crossed out. It's been an eventful year, full of quiet surprises. And now, these three remain:
Publish a book or an article of satisfactory quality, gain 10 Kilos of muscle, write a script for a play or short film.
I have never written anything really good, or gained that much muscle even through years of ridiculous hard work at the gym. Strangely, it's the ones that made me laugh that I've crossed out.
Taking stock of these resolutions, I've realized that they're all about... me! Truth is, after all these aspirations are crossed, I would have achieved... not much. Wouldn't it be better if our resolutions included making the world of others bigger? Personal goals are necessary for growth, for excellence. How much more excellent would we be if instead of being caught up in our dreams, we also started dreaming for someone who's given up hope?
The Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, was on September 8, 2010. I'm using that as an excuse to revise my list of resolutions for this year.
