Resolve (noun): firm determination to do something
-Merriam-Webster
At the beginning of each new year, we make resolutions. To work out more. To eat healthier. To quit smoking. To call our parents more often. Bold, year-long commitments to improve ourselves.
Do we mean these resolutions? Absolutely – at least at the time. Do we stick with them? Almost never. We stop going to the gym by mid-March. The French fries reappear in April. Puffing away by Memorial Day. Often our failure to execute these resolutions leaves us feeling worse than when we resolved to do them in the first place.
Areena has a new take on the New Year’s resolution: have a firm determination to do something for someone else. Help a neighbor live a better life. Spend a few hours at the local food pantry or animal shelter. Tutor a local kid struggling with math.
Why?
Because helping people is a miracle. Here’s how Bill Murray puts it at the end of the holiday classic Scrooged:
“There are people who are having trouble making their miracle happen; there are people who don’t have enough to eat, there are people who are cold, you can go out and say hello to these people. You can take an old blanket out of the closet and go to them and say ‘Here!’, you can make them a sandwich and say ‘oh by the way, here!’It can happen every day, you’ve just got to want that feeling. And if you like it and you want it, you’ll get greedy for it! You’ll want it every day of your life and it can happen to you.”
I couldn’t say it any better. Happy New Year!
Art Gurwitz
Founder, Areena
Founder, Areena
Share:
Author
