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Showing resolve in 2012

 

New Year's resolutions are the stuff of countless comedy routines and self-recriminations. Who among us hasn't made them with all sincerity...and then fallen far short on the delivery? If we'd like to be a little more consistent in getting the results we desire, perhaps we need to look more closely at the nature of resolutions themselves. What are they? Why do we make them? And why do we feel so awful the first time we break one--although subsequent failures seem not to produce as much anxiety for us?

 

If we look in the dictionary for clues to what a resolution is, we'll find something like, "A firm decision to do or not to do something." And in that definition we find the answer to why they can be so important to us. We have firmly concluded that something needs to be done, and we are committing ourselves to act upon that decision. Whether it's losing weight, learning oil painting or developing a second career, the reason is immaterial. We are moved to make a change in our life, and we resolve to accomplish it.

 

When we don't live up to our own expectations, we haven't just missed some vague goal. Instead, we've missed an opportunity that we ourselves recognized would make us better...if we could only persevere to achieve it. What to do?

  

Two strategies and a warning come to mind:

• First, make sure the goal of your resolution is something you want, not just someone else's idea of what you should be doing. When you are not convinced of the value of the goal, you dilute your ability to make the sacrifices necessary to succeed at it.
• Remember to take stock of the challenges ahead even as you anticipate a successful conclusion. Nothing that requires a resolution to achieve will come about without some setbacks. Think about how you will deal with frustrations before you meet them face-to-face.
• Understand that if you break your resolution once, it will become successively easier to do so again and again; it's just the nature of our psychological make-up. Don't plan on holding the line at your fifth attempt to keep your resolution. The war most likely will have been lost long before that skirmish.

How does the library fit into all this? In a word: Information. Success in achieving your goal is often determined by how much you know about the subject. Would you like to find out what diets will help you achieve weight loss and which ones might have a negative impact on your health? Do your research at the library to get an accurate picture of how to do it right. Curious about how much you'll have to spend on materials to launch your oil painting project? Use our many resources at the library to learn what a budding Botticelli should budget for. Need a second job to pay for that easel, canvas and palette? Find out which home-based businesses are thriving now and which ones are so 20th century.  

 

What the six-gun was to the Old West, information is to us today; it is a great equalizer. Never before in the entire history of the world has information flowed so easily, efficiently and economically to so many people. Your Pasadena Public Library has more information available on its shelves and in its databases than a dozen Great Library of Alexandria's could hope to contain. Roam the world, explore the far frontiers of science and take every opportunity to enrich your life...from the comfort of one of our armchairs. It's all here, waiting for you to take advantage of.

 

If you need a bit of inspiration to begin, you can't do much better than to recall words attributed to the German poet Goethe: 

"Are you in earnest? Seize this very minute; 
What you can do, or dream you can do, begin it; 
Boldness has genius, power and magic in it."

Have a great 2012! 

 

Wayne Holt  

Interim Library Director