The Pendulum

The new year is fast approaching, and with it comes a slew of resolutions. Some may succeed, but many of them are doomed to fall by the wayside. Maybe there’s a skill that we want to take up, or a relationship that we desire to improve, or perhaps we want to make someone proud. Why do we fail to realize so many of our dreams about a month or so into the new year? Does it have to do with impatience? Is it stalling for the perfect moment? Is it a lack of motivation? Could it be distraction? There is a rhythm that moves under the fabric of being. It is as though there is a pendulum swinging from side to side carrying our moods and motivations along with it. The swing of the pendulum cannot be stilled, and it is always there.

Starting off the new year with a new resolution is idealistic, that’s true, but is it realistic? Sometimes we’re in the thick of the unresolved and cannot align ourselves enough to get the momentum needed to launch towards new resolutions. In these circumstances impatience might very well prevent those resolutions from happening, because it misaligns us from the gradual realizing of them. When we are misaligned we are ill defined. Conversely, procrastinating for the perfect moment might lead to missed opportunities. A good plan today is better than the perfect plan tomorrow. Neither extreme produces lasting results, but being centered does. We must synchronize our moves with the swing of the pendulum and proceed in tandem with its rhythm before things start working out for us.

Motivation is an important key to have when you align yourself with your resolution. A person who is not really sold to their own resolution will struggle to bring it to life. Starting out reluctantly towards a resolution leads to the reluctant conclusion that it will not be realized. Maintaining motivation often requires removing as many distractions as we can. When too many distractions are around then efforts will be less than sound. Persistence is another important key to have. Staying the course, for better or worse, demonstrates a resilience in us that reminds us in the best possible way that we are more than our circumstances, and we truly can have that which we desire. However, we mustn’t fall into the pattern and psychological pitfall to desire and proceed to something new before what was previously desired is at all realized.

Those who try to be true to their principles might not find life easy but they will find that it is the right decision, and that it is far easier than compromising themselves for the sake of appearing trendy. Right decisions carry responsibilities, which may be hard, but wrong decisions carry difficulties that are tragic. Right decisions have more security and serenity because one can at least get along with themselves. So many resolutions fail because they are shallow expressions lacking genuine motivation to self improvement, and are forced to happen at a specific moment in time, often out of synch with the swing of the pendulum. We must ask ourselves whether we are truly ready to commit to a new resolution, and if we are in alignment and have enough momentum to make the jump lest we shame ourselves for acting poorly. For to live in a subconscious condition of being ashamed of our own conduct means ultimate sickness and misery.

“I think that gravity sets into everything, including careers, but pendulums do swing and mountains do become valleys after a while… if you keep on walking.” — Sylvester Stallone