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The real reason why some resolutions stick

  • Can linking your resolution to your passion be the game changer?
  • Here are three millennials who are hitching their resolutions to their passions to make a lasting change in the way they live

Divya Rolla wants to spend more time with her daughter outdoors
Divya Rolla wants to spend more time with her daughter outdoors

Even as people resolve to make their lives better every New Year, there are a host of others who merely resolve never to make another resolution, because breaking these can be a painful reinforcement of yet another failure.

However, when a resolution is closely linked to our lives and dreams, and its impact on us builds up over time, it can end up transforming more than just our behaviour. Here are three millennials who are hitching their resolutions to their passions to make a lasting change in the way they live.

Scaling New Heights

On the morning of 7 June, 2016, Vivek Luthra, 37, a businessman based in Mysuru was confronted with a bone-chilling situation. An avid trekker, Luthra, along with an experienced guide and seven others, was attempting to scale the Kalindi Khal pass in Uttarakhand. He was trekking in a single-file and was third in line, bound to the other trekkers with a thick rope tied to their waists. Suddenly Luthra felt unbearably heavy load, tugging at his stomach. That’s when he realized that a friend trekking behind him and connected to him by rope, had fallen into a gaping crevice. It took every ounce of Luthra’s strength to stay rooted to the spot. For the next 20 minutes, he managed to hold the position while others around him launched a rescue operation. Fortunately, they were successful and his friend was saved.

Ever since he’d graduated from college and took over the family business, Luthra had been battling rapid weight gain, but it had never prevented him from leading an active life. Though he started trekking in 2011, he sort of believed that he could keep up with the fittest trekker in his team. “But after this incident, something within me changed," he says. “I realized how easy it was to make a misstep and why being fit was as important as being active."

Making fitness a priority is Luthra’s sole resolution this year. “I plan to exercise regularly and to monitor my diet," he says. “My weight yo-yos tremendously. I gain when I am not trekking but shed the kilos when I do. I hope to have a more consistent approach to fitness this year, focusing on honing strength and agility." By the end of the year, Luthra has also resolved to take on a certified course from the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering (NIM) at Uttarkashi, a training for which one needs to be in peak physical condition.

Why Luthra thinks this resolution will not fail: While losing weight is one of the most common resolutions that people tend to fail at, it is because they are often propelled by vanity. “When your resolution is attuned to your life-long passion, it gives you more reason to effect lasting change."

Embracing the Outdoors

We all move where work takes us. And that is how Divya Rolla, 37, a contemporary dancer who now designs the well-being routine at Mind.fit, a chain of yoga studios in Bengaluru, found herself in Gurugram three years ago. Though she loves her work, by September every year, the air quality in the city deteriorated so much, that her then one-year-old daughter Maya constantly had to deal with endless fits of cough. Rolla struggled to keep her young child engaged while being confined indoors with air purifiers day after day. “It was so severe that Maya and I started leaving the city in October only to return in February," she says.

It was during one of these breaks in Tuticorin, that Rolla realized how much her daughter loved the outdoors. “She would spend all day in the water, coming in only for meals. She ate better, slept well."

It brought home to Rolla how much of a positive impact this kind of living could have. Six months ago, the family moved to Bengaluru, a city they believed has the cleanest air among the metros. “This is a year dedicated to helping my four-year-old lead a lesser entitled, more outdoorsy and active life," says Rolla. “We intend to get away from the city, visit seasides, mountains, go on small treks and farm visits." The family has planned trips to the Kochi Biennale Foundation art festival and are hunting for trekking trails appropriate for younger kids in Coonoor. They’re going snorkelling in the Maldives soon.

Why Rolla thinks this resolution will not fail: This is a self-motivating resolution since it’s linked to the well-being of her daughter. “When your resolution is vested with this sense of responsibility, when it’s about making the right choices that can have a huge impact on those you love, you will stick to it," she believes

Sparking joy all year long

After watching the Netflix show based on Marie Kondo’s best-selling book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying up: The Japanese art of Decluttering and Organizing, Susmita Mukherjee, 36, a senior editor at Offshoot Books in New Delhi and founder of Alpaviram, a website promoting responsible travel practices, admits that she was hooked to the concept. “I’ve always had a tendency to be a hoarder," she says. After living in rented homes for most of her life, Mukherjee says she thought she could get rid of the things she didn’t really need once she moved into a home of her own. After learning about the KonMari method however, her attitude has changed; her New Year’s resolution is to KonMari her entire home. “By the fourth episode, I was cleaning my closets," she says. “The KonMari method tells you to feel grateful for your possessions, to actually thank them for having completed a journey with you and nourished you. The belief is that even non-living things have an energy. This really changed the way I regarded everything."

She learnt to use less plastic, and to recycle and reuse as much as possible. But there are some aspects of KonMari method that doesn’t work for her. Mukherjee has more than the recommended 30 books for instance and doesn’t tap on them to “wake them up" as Kondo instructs, and has made her peace with a husband who refuses to KonMari his own spaces. “It’s an ongoing project that’s helped me keep a clean house," she says.

Why Mukherjee thinks this resolution will not fail: She’s picked a resolution that’s made an impact on her body and mind—affecting her physically and mentally. “The peace and contentment I feel now on a personal level will ensure that I never revert to clutter again," she says.

Susmita Mukherjee has started using the KonMari method to organize her home
Susmita Mukherjee has started using the KonMari method to organize her home
 Vivek Luthra’s only priority this year is to get fit
 Vivek Luthra’s only priority this year is to get fit

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