By Meenu Arora

Some people see the New Year as a chance to start afresh. Is it time to make yet another unbreakable promise to oneself?

THE REALITY

Let’s take a look at the New Year resolution stats. 40 to 45% of American adults make one or more resolutions each year. 75% resolutions are kept past the first week, 71% past the second week, 64% past one month and 46% past 6 months. (Source:  Journal of Clinical Psychology, Volume 58, Issue 4, 2002.) The four most popular New Year resolutions are related to self-improvement or education, weight, money, and relationships.

THE PLAN

Be Specific: Like all other goals, New Year resolutions should be specific, have measurable landmarks, and a solid deadline. They should be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-based (SMART goals). For example, if one’s resolution is to lose weight, it helps to attach a real and realistic number to the goal. Breaking down the final goal into short term goals and tracking progress can help one stay motivated. To give yourself the best chance for success, share your resolution with close family and friends who can provide support (read: nag!) to help you make the change and attain your goal.

Reward Yourself: Meeting each short term goal should be an occasion to celebrate (preferably not a box of chocolates for the weight loss goal!). This can take away some of the sting of the resolution, because, by definition, the goal is something that has been previously hard to attain. Rewarding yourself is also a way of honoring your commitment to change. Experts say it takes about 21 days for a new activity, such as exercising, to become a habit, and 6 months for it to become part of your personality.

KIDS AND THE NEW YEAR

Kids can have New Year resolutions too. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has released suggestions for New Year resolution for kids of different age groups. For example, preschoolers could be helped to have resolutions like cleaning up their toys, brushing their teeth twice daily and washing their hands. For kids 5-12 years old these are extended into trying out new sport or activity, wearing a helmet while biking, wearing sunscreen before going out in the sun, being friendly with other kids and not to release personal information on the Internet. Teenagers’ New Year resolutions range from proper nutrition to appropriate usage of cell phones (no texting while driving, for example), community service goals and treating other people with respect.

DESI RESOLUTIONS

For Indian Americans, the New Year can be  a time to get into some good habits and practices ranging from practicing vegetarianism, eating less junk food, improving fitness levels, embarking on a dream vacation, reaching out for a spiritual connection.

There are those who believe that making confident choices every day is more important than New Year resolutions. I heard a friend say, “Just give New Year resolutions a rest and in the coming year do your best!”  Kudos to those who have the self-discipline and motivation to have ongoing goals and staying on track. For the rest of us, New Year’s resolutions can be a great way of kick starting our life towards a different, more positive direction. And let’s not forget to look back and give thanks for what we have and what we have already accomplished with our lives.

Meenu Arora has over 10 years of experience teaching and working with kids. She writes on topics on kids and health. She is a physician of homeopathy and currently works in a quality management position.

Blogging has been very slow (okay, non-existent) for the past couple of years while I slogged away at India Currents (no, not really). But I’ve recently come into some time and the approaching New Year nudges me to a resolution that I will get WNI up and running again.

The biggest challenge for a blogger is to get inspired to write, especially when there are just so many distractions. (At this moment I count 7, no, 8 portals to the time sink that is the world wide web in my house, who knows how many more the Christmas season will bring). But sometimes you come across a piece of information that motivates you, or infuriates you to get off that lazy, spreading butt and vent.

Today’s prod is this article in the NYT:

Amazon was encouraging customers to go into brick-and-mortar bookstores on Saturday, and use its price-check app (which allows shoppers in physical stores to see, by scanning a bar code, if they can get a better price online) to earn a 5 percent credit on Amazon purchases (up to $5 per item, and up to three items).

I would be more appalled, but all I can think of saying to the company is – “Suckers! We’ve been doing this for years for free.” How do you think Fremont, CA lost every single bookstore in the neighborhood?

After the Citizen’s United decision by the US Supreme Court, there were howls of outrage by progressives about terming corporations as people. I used to protest too, but lately I’ve been wondering if the war could be better fought by exposing exactly what kind of people corporations are – greedy, self-serving, and soulless.

That kind of personality that would not be tolerated in a human being. We value qualities like compassion, tolerance, and altruism in other human beings, so why shouldn’t we demand it of a corporation too? After all, if the corporation has a right to free speech, a right to spend money without restrictions, (and life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness too, it seems) then why shouldn’t it be bound by the same kind of civilized behavior that we expect of our more sentient peers?

However, social behavior is a product of conditioning; the boor and the bully are usually stopped not by the law but by ostracism, by the collective agreement that their behavior is not acceptable. An analogical strategy would be send Amazon the message that their heavy-handed tactics are abhorrent by boycotting them. But is that even possible anymore? As I write this, a few packages are on their way to my doorstep; a few weeks ago, when I saw a copy of Ann Patchett’s State of Wonder in an airport bookstore, my hand hovered over it only for the seconds it took my brain to resolve to look it up online. (I eventually found it in my local library, but with Amazon’s lending service on the Kindle, and enormous pressure to cut funding for government services, I wouldn’t be surprised if the next assault is on that esteemed institution.) I was one of those handful of people in my city who shopped at my local stores regularly, but Fremont has now become a junkyard of dollar stores, buffet restaurants, and discount clothiers, apparently the only kind of retail that can weather a recession.

Ms. Patchett is one of the authors quoted in the NYT article. To her credit, and my fervent admiration, she has opened up an independent store in Nashville, TN, precisely to counter this mind-numbing creep of commerce into literature. Even her response to Amazon’s latest shenanigans is resigned rather than militant –

“There is no point in fighting them or explaining to them that we should be able to coexist civilly in the marketplace,” [she writes]. “I don’t think they care. I do think it’s worthwhile explaining to customers that the lowest price point does not always represent the best deal. If you like going to a bookstore then it’s up to you to support it. If you like seeing the people in your community employed, if you think your city needs a tax base, if you want to buy books from a person who reads, don’t use Amazon.”

Is someone in my neighborhood listening? Please open a bookstore – I promise you at least one loyal customer.