What makes celebrating the coming of the New Year different, aside from the fireworks, the parties, and the changing of the calendars, are the New Year resolutions. These are the numerous promises that we make to ourselves year after year: to lose weight, to eat healthier, to stop smoking, to do better at work, to earn more, to find true love, to pray more, to make better decisions, and so many more, although sadly most of which are bound to be broken even before the Chinese new year rolls around and forgotten before Ash Wednesday.

There must be something about the changing of the year, aside from those first few days of reminding yourself to write down a new digit at the end of dates, that makes us think of second chances and new opportunities. It makes me wonder why most of us insist on waiting for the fireworks to go off and the previous year's calendars to officially become obsolete before deciding to act on the many nagging personal issues that have been bothering us all year long, even if some of those issues have been present as early as March.

For the procrastinators, the New Year is one of those immovable goals that have to be faced head on. After all, its easy to say “tomorrow”, “next week”, or “next month na gid”, but a bit awkward to assure the people who have been nagging them “next next year na lang”. The funny thing is, chronic procrastinators have found ways to somehow turn that immovable goal into something that is movable yet again and just a few days after the year turns, “next year” is another full 360-something days away, all over again.

I guess the only way we can beat the curse of the unfulfilled New Year resolution is to not make them and instead make those resolutions more piecemeal and therefore easier to monitor and maintain. If you really want those New Year resolutions to stick, then turn them into new week or new month resolutions so that you can check on your progress every week or month instead of every year. Not having to wait for an entire year to reset those resolutions also allow us room to stumble and be human, so that when we do slip or forget, we can reset those goals when the next week or day comes around.

Those who depend on New Year resolutions seem to think that just because you caved and smoked a stick means that you have broken the promise and must conveniently wait for the next New Year to come around to try again. If you think like that, then it may be better not to make any new years resolutions at all because you will only be fooling yourself.

Aside from the resolutions, the New Year also allows us to look back and take stock at what we have accomplished and what could possibly lie ahead. Again, this is another activity that can be done any time of the year, but the occasion of the New Year makes it more conducive for that kind of reflection, which for some may quickly come and go during the lull between explosions of fireworks and firecrackers, or for others require an entire quiet afternoon to themselves. Whether that time of reflection takes a split second or a whole afternoon is not important, although I'm pretty sure those who take more time to think about their lives and the direction it is going should be able to come up with better plans of action, but what really matters would be the decision and the commitment towards those plans.

For me, the New Year's celebrations would all be nothing but food and drinks if I had not been able to do a little thinking, dreaming, and planning for the coming year.

Of course, the most important part about my thoughts on the New Year is that if you really come to think of it, we do not have to wait for the stroke of midnight of Jan. 1 every year if we need a solid deadline to put our lives in order. It can be any time because when it comes to our lives, we don't need to wait for an exact date so we can make plans. As long as we know what we want, and have a rough idea of how to get there, and have completely made up our minds to go for it, then any of us can declare our own new year celebrations all year round.

Happy New Year everybody.