One of the members of my writing group is a woman from South Korea. She’s had a difficult life, both there and here, and has shared with us some heartfelt and thoughtful observations about her life and experiences—again, both there and here.

At our last meeting, she read a piece that touched on New Year’s Resolutions, noting that once, when she had a January appointment with her dentist, she asked him what his New Year’s Resolutions were. He said he didn’t make any. She wrote that she was surprised to hear that, and wondered if it meant he had already achieved every goal and plan he had for his life.

I never thought about it like that before. And I doubt if her dentist did, either. The usual reasons people give for not making resolutions are that they’re easily made and quickly broken, or that if we want to make changes in our lives, we shouldn’t wait until January 1 to start.

I’m guessing no one has ever stopped making resolutions because they’ve crossed everything off their to-do list, emptied everything from their bucket list, and reached every goal they’ve ever worked toward. I can’t even imagine what that would look like.

Nor would I want to, actually. It seems to me that reaching any goal opens the door to another. This is not the same as the fate of Sisyphus of Greek mythology, who angered Zeus and was punished by forever having to push a rock up a hill, only to have it roll back down once he got it to the top.

Instead, it’s about living a life of purpose, strength, and growth. I love the quote by Robert Breault that goes, “How often in life we complete a task that was beyond the capability of the person we were when we started it.” I think that applies here, whether or not it’s wrapped up in a New Year’s Resolution.

My South Korean friend—who gave me permission to write about her and to include part of the writing she brought to our last meeting—closed her piece with something I think we should all be striving for.

“If I can say to myself” she wrote, “added to appreciation, I am loved, liked, protected, and safe, that will be great.”

I can’t think of a better resolution than that, on New Year’s Day, and every day throughout the year.

January 21, 2025
©Betty Liedtke, 2025

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