Resolving Not to Resolution

It's already the New Year - 2021. As long as I can remember, and I am 50 years old, there was always a big deal about the New Year’s resolution. It was supposed to be a time to put away the bad habits of the past and create more positive ones for the coming year. Mostly what I remember are advertisements for losing weight or exercising more. What I have learned over the years is that resolutions are not one-time issuance. Resolution means to resolve, and that can happen any day. As an MS Warrior, it happens every day.

Falling into the trap

For most of my life, I was one of those people. One of the millions of individuals who started out on the first day of the new year with good intentions. As the saying goes, the path to hell is paved with good intentions. Well, for me that path was paved with the good intentions of everyone else and the advertising agencies. Oh yes! I used to load up with new diet and exercise plans. After all, wasn’t that what we were all striving for? That New Year’s resolution was supposed to be a way for us to turn the page. We were supposed to turn away from the negative and bad habits of the previous year and promise to do better.

Feeling like a failure

Every year, I would faithfully write out my list of new habits. On top of that, I would have intricate road maps of how to get there. Unfailingly before the first quarter of the year was over, I had failed. Like so many others, I internalized the idea that I was a failure because I could not keep my New Year’s promise. That was not and is not true.

What is the resolution?

As a person living with multiple sclerosis, I know what resolve means. I know that you, my fellow MSers, also have that same resolve. It is the strength we use every day when we open our eyes. That is our resolve to keep going. We have the hope of a good day. That is our resolve to look for the positives. We do our best to take care of ourselves and our health. That is our resolve to love and cherish ourselves.

Every day is a resolution

You see, every day we all make little resolutions. And that is the key. A resolution is not about one single day that will dictate and control the rest of your year. A resolution is simply the promise to try. Every day that we wake up and open our eyes, we fulfill a resolution. It is a resolution fulfilled regardless of what the day brings and regardless of what victories or failures.

As people living with multiple sclerosis, we ARE the embodiment of a successful resolution. Enjoy your new year and don’t make any resolutions if you don't want to. Just be who you are.