Well new years day has come and gone and we are almost to February. So tell me, what arbitrary promise have you made to yourself and how soon did you break it? Every year their is this shadow industry that tells you you are a bad person the way you are and you must make promises to be a better person. Not only that but you should do it on the new year as a grand fucking sweeping gesture toward change.
The resolution is a pervading part of the human psyche, the start of a new fucking life. We as a culture are obsessed with words like new, fresh, and improved. We all want what is better. The problem is we don't know what the fuck "better" means.
Penn Jillette once said, "Arbitrary promises prove that we can make and live by our own rules without the need for a higher power. They prove that we alone control ourselves through our choices and our will." Which is great. But some whiny cocksacks make these promises then break them and and then feel guilty as if they have broken some personal eleventh commandment. As if they were a failure for breaking a promise they made to themself. The reality is that you don't have to hold yourself to any self made promise you don't want to. Notice there that I said "self made promise" if you make promises that matter to other people and break them you are still a dishonorable twat.
The only real resolution we should be making is to do whatever it is we can to be happier and more fulfilled than we were the year before. Unfortunately that doesn't make the fucktarded fitness industry any money. They still want that first 3 months revenue you will spend in order to not be such a fat ass. Which you will then go and break because pizza and chocolate and fatty shit in general is fucking delicious.
But even the simple concept of being happier and more fulfilled is too elaborate a promise.
Hate your job? Would a new job make you happier? Then please feel free to wade into the quagmire that is today's job search. In an instant your promise to be happier is incinerated.
Hate that your love life or marriage is in shambles? Do I really need to go into the reasons why changing your love life sucks? Most of dating seems to be blind luck. And divorce really is a giant roller coaster of fun isn't it? Who doesn't enjoy the abject pain of separating your belongings and finding a new places to live? Also, the eventual filing of papers and court dates are a blast of fresh ass. Divorce is a costly fuckass system that I am sure most would agree that it should be harder to get married and easier to get divorced. So once again your dream of happiness and fulfillment is a fucking nightmare.
So what to do then?
If you are looking for some grand arbitrary sweeping gesture or proclamation to change you forever then keep dreaming fucko! Because that isn't how it works. Resolutions are a promise. A promise you make every day and in every moment. Until it occurs without you prompting yourself to do it. Change is gradual and slow and hard work. Recognizing in each moment what needs changing and then making the change.We need to stop thinking that a promise we make at the beginning of a calendar year is all it takes to change. We need to stop being obsessed with better.
As soon as we become simply aware of ourselves and others and how to treat one another and ourselves in every moment with dignity and respect and love...we will instantly achieve better. Stop living in fairy tales. Live in this world, make the effort and you will get everything you want.
Don't be afraid to work and suffer and you will find that you won't have to work or suffer.
With deep and abiding affection,
Gabriel
