Dec 2001 Volume 82 Number 1 "serving the protectors"

Resolutions For The New Year

I trust the New Year finds you fit and well and that Christmas was a time of peace and joy for you and your family.

With the New Year comes New Year’s resolutions.

The notion of resolutions creates interest for people, but is there any real purpose in it?

We are very largely creatures of habit. We have shaped our ways over the years and can become quite predictable and routine in our behaviours. It is this routine that can be either a bonus or baggage to us as we move through life.

Those closest to us will know our habits well and can use them to predict when and when not to make requests of us. You know the scenario - the daughter wants something new but sees how dad came through the door and thrust his bag down. She decides to leave it until she can be more certain of a reasoned response.

There are many times in our lives when the need or opportunity to change direction is presented. This applies not only in the work area but also to all areas of our lives, and the many events that have significant impact on us. Do we see these changes as an opportunity to review our goals and the way we operate? Or do we see them as temporary glitches to ignore until things settle back into a more comfortable, known feeling.

Many of us avoid - at our peril - the opportunity to change. We are given messages - often from those we care about - and choose to ignore them until changes are enforced by the person taking action independently of us.

The opportunity can appear at any time. For me, it came in the form of aggravation from an old work injury. My knee was starting to flare up and my tennis was going further off the boil. Needless to say, since leaving STAR Division 17 years ago my eating routine had remained but my exercise routine had become somewhat limited. After surgery - and discussion with the specialists - it was a question of how long until the knee replacement. This did not thrill me and, after being Mr Sorrowful for some time and retiring from tennis, I decided that I had some options.

I decided to lose weight in an effort to continue playing tennis. I had known this secret of my growing girth for some time but was comfortable in my routine diet of fatty food. I joined the Gutbusters correspondence program. Some eight months later I have a new set of daily routines - around low fat diet and walking - that has found me with a reduced girth. I have long returned to the tennis court and now reach balls about which I would 12 months ago have called out: “Good shot.”

At New Year, or any time significant change is looming, consider your habits and behaviours. Is it time for a change? Often I counsel people who have developed behaviours that they know have costs to them at a personal level. They also know there are emotional, psychological or physical dangers in continuing with them. But it can be hard to change, or should that be that it is easy not to change. We are ultimately responsible for our own world. The use of agencies or people such as those in the Welfare or Psychology Sections can assist people who have made the decision to change and want to get some assistance with their new direction.

As I am finding, once the new habits have become the norm, it does get easier - and the positives that are experienced reinforce the decision for change.

The changes sought may be about relatively simple habits - like eating style - or may be decisions about changing how one deals with life issues or personal behaviour, such as anger or fear.

As someone who traditionally didn’t make New Year resolutions, I have changed to ensure I am controlling my habits and have ownership of them all - good, bad and indifferent. I will seek to change those habits that I have outgrown, or for which I have no positive use. I feel good about my changes.

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