UPSIZE PH | 5 Things You Can Let Go Instead of Trying to Do a Long Ass List of New Year's Resolutions

Jan 17

Jan 17 5 Things You Can Let Go Instead of Trying to Do a Long Ass List of New Year's Resolutions

I don’t know about you but making New Year’s Resolutions have become outdated for me. Times have changed and old traditions, despite having that sentimental value, seemed to be out of fashion already. Like listing and writing down unnecessary old habits at the start of the year to resolve habits that need improvements or point out to what needs to be undone for self-improvement. I think such a New Year’s tradition should be updated to resonate this age’s changing attitudes.

So instead of resolutions, this year, I’m doing a list of “what to let go” maybe since there are - to romanticize a quote, “art in letting go”. And by this I don’t mean people, but things or ideas and even attitudes, that hinder us from relating to others, peacefully and equally. Perhaps we embrace a shift into our perspectives. Here are some we might need to let go of:

1. Sentimentality in material things such as souvenirs that don’t really matter from bygone years

How many special occasion items have we to hoard in our closet to remind us of the good times? I say we stick to photographs and cherish every minute we have with our loved ones and friends instead because time is more precious than souvenirs.

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2. Social expectations and unrealistic standards that hold us back from improving ourselves and how we deal with others

When people differ from us, we gravitate away from them. How do we make peace with others if we reject people who live in the outskirts of our familiarity?

Sometimes it’s easy to judge others by our own biased standards. But all we really need to do is to understand the hearts of others so our stereotypes of how people should be and how things should be done would be broken down into a bridge for understanding. Instead of obligating others to be like ourselves, we make an effort to help them be better.

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Admit it or not, we Filipinos have become a society of stereotypes. Sometimes it prevents us from relating to others because we limit our social activity to only those who conform to our belongingness: the neighborly network of chikadoras; the leaning towards mysogyny in relationships. These are just some of the social stereotypes that prevent us from accepting our fellows who don’t subscribe to our expectations because one: they are unique or they are different in attitudes or are often misunderstood.

3. Labelling people

Unmindfully, sometimes even the nicest of persons have a tendency to label others with hate. We hate when we’re angry and when others have failed our expectations. But have we even thought about this somehow, that at some point in our life, we have also failed others? So before thinking of labelling another individual whom we think is below ideal or before we reject a person because of our personal biases, remember that people do get hurt when you call them names.

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4. Diminutive respect towards women

Gender partiality continue to exist. But why do women have to work for respect in society when respect should be given freely to everyone?

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As women, we should not settle for something that puts women in the mold of the weaker sex gender. We can be feminine but we can be tough and respected too. And this is the ideal all women should live by.

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5. Using social media to bring down others

Social media is supposed to connect us in friendship and not bring people down with negativity. So don’t get the hang of posting negative comments with brevity because social media should give one the power to build and not the power to demean another.