The Roman god Janus, for whom the month of January is named, had two faces.  One looking towards the past, and the other towards the future.  Each new year the typical god fearing Roman would make a selection of promises to Janus.  Promises to do his duty, to be honest, to do better work, to make a better sacrifice, to be a better person.  Thousands of years have passed since this Roman tradition started and Europeans across the world to this day carry on the tradition of making special promises to themselves to do better in the new year.  Surprisingly this tradition is not going away, but actually getting stronger.  A century ago only one in four people made resolutions each year, but today half the population of Western countries make new year’s resolutions.  I take this as a hopeful sign that we are living in an age of a new awakening in terms of self-awareness and self-responsibility.

A resolution is an act of rebellion against mediocrity within oneself.  It shouldn’t be about recognising that one isn’t perfect, of course one isn’t, but instead about recognising that one can do better.  I am a poor cook for instance, off the top of my head I know about ten recipes that I can make with confidence.  I do find myself making the same things over and over again and I would like to learn how to make more interesting dishes.  So one of my new year’s resolutions this year is to learn one new recipe each month.  That’s merely a total of 12 new recipes for the year.  It’s not particularly hard resolution on the face of it, but it would improve the quality of my life in many ways.  Firstly, it would more than double the number of dishes I currently feel confident making.  This would bring more variety into my meals, pleasing me, and increasing my quality of life, but it would also increase my value to other people as an entertainer or guest to a pot luck dinner party.  Having new recipes I can make for my friends means that I can give more to them and enjoy the giving experience as well as the increased respect that comes from my increased value as a friend. Continue reading →