Weird topic right?
Hi guys i’m sorry i’ve been playing truant these past few weeks, I could give you excuses, my biro ink finished, my typewriter jammed, Google went on strike but I won’t. I’ll just say sorry (one of my exes said something similar to that when he just stopped calling me for 3 months, mahn, I wanted to smack him in the face, but contrary to popular opinion, I’m a non-violent person).
So it’s a new year, yay! I’m so happy I got out of the last one because a new year gives us the illusion of a new start, a chance to do everything over and do it right, it’s like for a little time we believe we can leave the past in the past and then start a new journey in the present, our broken hearts, our broken pockets, dare I say our broken dreams too, we think it’s a good place to start new things, little wonder why we get advices on what to do to make our year better or funner than the last and you’re probably thinking I’ll give you one great advice on how to seize that bae (oh, that was last year?, I’m stale) or how to catch fun or something but I ain’t gonna.
You see, from the little I know of my bible, (and I mean very little, they come from the time I used to love bible club), there’s an Hebrew proverb that you can’t pour new wine into old wine skins, just as I know old habits die hard, you can’t get a different method by using the same result (sorry I think it’s the other way round), it’s you can’t get a different result by using the same method, you can’t approach things with the same darn attitude and expect that by an unforseen miracle, you’re gonna get a different outcome. There’s a book I’ve been reading, my sister gave it to me, it’s called Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, it explains how successful people become succesful as a result of accumulation of so many factors, it also shows how different people approach things differently and get different results e.g. why Asian people are good at maths and the Western world isn’t (please don’t argue with me, get a copy of the book and read), anyways it shows that there are inevitably different outcomes to dissimilar methods of doing the same thing;
• If you’re failing in school, why not try a different approach to your education, maybe read for 3 hours in a day instead of waiting for your notes to accumulate
• If it’s boyfriend you’re looking for, you heard Boombox Hero, wear less and go out more, slide into their dms (at your own peril)
• If you’re short on friends, maybe smile more and try to get outta your shell and converse with people, they won’t bite, if they snob you, it’s a slight on them, not on you
• If you have a lover who’s not good to you, don’t cry and shout anymore, leave, you’re better off on your own
• If you think the world is against your rise to fame, please check your sanctimonious self and maybe realize your own faults too
and etcetera etcetera, it’s hard to do you know, changing your approach to things but I’ll leave you with the sage words of goodness who reviewed the last post;
“By telling people to scrub new year resolutions, you’re challenging a philosopy they’ve embaced all their lives. So one should propose a worthy alternative. A resolution makes you focus on a goal, the grand dream, the destination and that’s why we never follow through because it becomes frustrating. How about chunking those lofty dreams into extremely simple daily disciplines, that compounded over time, will create the results you want by the end of the year i.e. why not focus on the process instead of the destination.
So instead of saying I want to read a hundred books this year, why not I’m going to read 10 pages of a good book everyday this year, 10 pages everyday is 3,650 pages in a year, that would probably amount to a dozen books aimed at improving your life within a year instead of a grand transformation that would be produced in one significant experience. That way you point out that resolutions are not the problem, our approach to them is.
Lastly, know that giving up ain’t an option, you can doubt, you can be afraid, you can even fail but don’t you dare settle or throw in the towel.”
I think she’s a very smart lady, the question is: do you have what it takes to consciously change your approach?
From Paris(in my dreams) with love,
Gloria.
