2015 - The YEAR of the T.H.I.N.K

The easiest thing to do with New Year resolutions (and you must make New Year resolutions – I do that every year) is to copy-paste last year’s resolutions. Ideally do it without thinking. If you are thinking, do it with the confidence and conviction that this year you will be more successful.

Great plan.

But this year I went THINK. THINK. THUNK. And changed the way I made my resolutions. 

So this year is not about resolutions.

This year is the year of the year of the T.H.I.N.K. 

Here's what it stands for. And I welcome you to follow it.

T stands for Thinking about Thinking

NOW.

Now, in my mind, is a peril of today’s instant technology world. You are expected to respond to Whatsapp messages now. You are expected to respond to email s now. You are expected to answer calls now or send a message now saying you’ll do it later. And then, later becomes now again!

Then there’s the immediacy of social media. Facebook asks you, “What’s on your mind?” They mean what’s on your mind NOW? Twitter wants to know, “What’s happening?”  Obviously, now. What’s happening now. Which is fine. I understand the urgency of the world wanting to know what’s happening now. I don’t understand (or have thought much about) my having to respond now.

So when the world wants to know what I am doing NOW, I am going to step back and think before I respond, and think about whether I do want to respond. It’s no longer going to be about NOW. Not about TODAY. I’ve to get thinking about tomorrow . And day after. And the week after. And the month after. And probably 2020.

I’m going to think more. Think harder, deeper, clearer. And maybe the NOW when used for thinking will bring me so revelations. (I’ll let you know, but not now.)

So here’s my advice for you. Don’t respond to those urgent things unless they are important. Think. Think twice. Think more. And it’s fine if you don’t respond at all. As long as you  thought about it. You get the drift? 

H is for Home

Home is where the heart is. It’s also where the hearth is. Well, not so in Mumbai, but hearth as a metaphor for warmth is where you need to get the fires roaring.

2014 has not been a great year for the home with some unscheduled repairs. 2015 is a good year to think about home. (See? Already, thinking!) So it’s time to warm the hearth with friends over and family get-togethers, with games played together, meals cooked yourself (even if the family members are victims of your experimentation!), home is where the attention should be pointed to this year.  And it’s not just the four walls of home – it’s about all the people in there and the ones that come and go! Home is the centre of attention this year. Try it. I’m sure I’m going to have fun.

I is for… well, I!

Time to get selfish, guys! It’s going to be about I, me myself. Concentrate on the mental, physical and a bit of spiritual well-being. Every year starts with the resolution to lose weight , eat healthy, get fit. This year is the same but different. This year the focus is shifted on I. me, myself and whatever it takes to get me better. If it means learning new lessons, taking new courses, getting intellectually savvier, so be it. Make this the year to be a better you.  And I do want to end the year better in every way. A whole lot better. More whole.  More you. A better you. I am determined to do this. So move over world, a more self-oriented me is coming your way.

N means NO

I still haven’t learnt the art of saying No. (Yes I know there are self-help books available on that subject – I haven’t read any of them) But sometimes saying No is a good idea. Sometimes it’s not. I want to be discretionary. Okay more discretionary. And this is the way you do it. I’ve regretted saying No and I’ve regretted not saying NO. I want to go back to point 1 of this year’s resolutions and think about why I am saying no and to whom and to what effect.

Oh yes, let’s any way say No to bad habits and such. No to some excesses and No to… well… to certain Yesses that we say without thinking.

K is for Knowledge

If this year stretches bare in front of you, it’s because it’s a blank page. And you can choose to write what you want on it. Look at it another way, it’s also the written page that is still unread. 2015 (like all the years before that and after) should still focus on knowledge. On knowing. More. More about things you know. Some things about things you don’t know about. 

It’s about knowing me, knowing you. It’s about knowing the difference between information and wisdom. Knowing what stays, what goes. Knowing that this too shall pass and knowing that at the end of it all you are still an ignoramus barelycircling  the periphery of a vast pool of knowledge still undiscovered. So back to  books and learning and books about learning! Stagnate and perish. Learn and evolve. Knowing is all. 

I think T.S.Eliot put it succinctly when he said this. 

2015 is the YEAR of the T.H.I.N.K.

Hope I succeed in making it so. What about you?