Leading up to the New Year and that feeling lurking within everyone to reinvent yourself, this week we reached out to a few familiar faces on what they had in store for the coming year, if they were ready to have new year solutions and if they even believed that starting the new year with resolutions will help you have a cheerful and successful year?
Here’s what we found out:
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Asela Abeywardene
painter, sculptor, potter, art educator and Ikebana artist
I usually don’t come up with New Year resolutions for each specific year as I believe that time is a continuous flow. However, tradition dictates that we acknowledge passing years. So consciously or subconsciously I do find myself thinking about what I could accomplish (or not accomplish) in a given year.
The past three years have been unfavourable to most of us in many ways. Yet I have come to realise that adversity is a test of human spirit and resilience. As an artist I was able to push boundaries and think of innovative ways to create and present my art to the world amid numerous challenges.
I hope to continue this in 2023 as well by looking for ways to utilize local resources and ancient techniques to ignite a modern aesthetic trend in Sri Lankan ceramic art. As a human being I would like to contribute more time and effort to enhancing wellbeing: especially mental and psychological wellbeing in myself and others. I believe that mobilization of individuals and communities to form supportive networks, instead of making them rely on external parties and forces is the key to achieve this. I firmly believe that this is a tangible goal. The only way we could come out of these devastating global and national catastrophes is to harness and effectively use, strength and goodness which is inherent in all of us.
I don’t really know whether having resolutions could help in having a good year. As humans we are susceptible to ups and downs in our outer world as well as our inner world. I suppose resolutions could contribute to a positive mindset and clearer goals but I think self awareness is crucial whether we have resolutions or not.
If we are aware of who we truly are, then the opportunity is there to make changes and grow. ‘Happiness’ and ‘success’ are very subjective, relative and abstract notions which cannot be addressed or understood in generic terms. With awareness, one would be able to decipher what these notions really mean to his/herself and that would help the person to aspire to reach the points he/she envisages. These points may not be linear or fixed though. I think resolutions are also the same.
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Darshani Abeyrathna,
author of children’s books
My resolutions for the year include publishing more books that motivate children. I hope to motivate the next generation. I believe it is the humble and noble purpose for my writing. I want to write more to educate children and help them learn the language using stories I write, as well as to help students who are living in extreme poverty learn to read and write in English and work with like-minded individuals to improve Sri Lankan education. Do a lot of reading.
To read more than I did last year is one of my top goals for this year. I’ve read a lot already, but you can never have too much of a good thing, am I right? Keep my goals and dreams in mind to achieve them. Take concrete actions to realize my dreams. Regardless of how big or little my goals are, I’ll always keep working toward them.
This indicates that I should keep concentrating on my dreams, making plans, learning new things, acquiring the necessary abilities, and making at least one step toward my goals every day.We have to be very organized and we should plan ahead and I believe that hopes keep us going. So it’s always good to have new year resolutions.
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Jeremy Muller
Publisher, Jam Fruit Tree Publishers
As a publisher, I am always looking for better ways to support authors in Sri Lanka; exploring every platform and medium to let their work be discovered.
Therefore, the coming year, I would be concentrating on that.Speaking of hoe new year resolutions help people have a successful year, I think it works if you have your priorities right.
Most people fail at their resolutions when they do it for themselves, as they are also the first to give themselves excuses, but if your priority is change to better yourself for others around you, like your family and friends, that kind of makes things more resolute.
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Grace Wickramasinghe
poet and legal researcher
Every year I have New ear resolutions that caters towards my long-term and short-term plans and goals. I think having goals and resolutions help us focus and also hold ourselves accountable, not only through the first few months of 2023 but more long-term to be a better version of ourselves.
One of my biggest new year resolutions would be to drink more water, and hopefully to have a happier year than 2022 which was a year of a lot of stress and personal loss for me. I prefer to keep my career and personal goals to myself or my inner circle and family until I achieve. Rather walk the walk than talk it.
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Thanuja Jayawardena
(aka lola) Tiktoker
I do not believe in making New Year resolutions. I do not think this will help people have a cheerful and successful year, this sets the bar too high and it will set people up for disappointment.
I firmly believe that people cannot change themselves overnight. When you fail to achieve these unrealistic goals you give yourself you will be upset, disappointed and start to think less of yourselves. Therefore this is not a healthy practice at all. I believe small changes are the way to go. Little by little we can work towards our betterment.
Go with short term plans, short term goals. For example, if I give myself a goal to save Rs. 500,000 by the end of the year I might not get anywhere, in fact it may be too overwhelming. Instead, I can give myself a small sum of money to save monthly which will eventually add up to Rs. 500,000. I also believe we have to be kind to ourselves, appreciate ourselves for who we are. We have done so well this year, so 2023 is not going to be any different. Understanding this will help you become a cheerful person. I hope everyone has a wonderful year ahead.
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Yashodara Pathanjali
Master life coach
In terms of resolutions for 2023, for me, I think it’s about strengthening the resolve to live even more consciously, conscious of the environment, conscious of our part in upholding unhealthy systems such as corruption, injustice, patriarchy, racism. This year gave us the most tangible moment to review ourselves and our actions, with the Aragalaya, and we can only keep that alive and work towards the future we all seek as we step into 2023.
Setting intentions and mindfulness is research proven to be a more successful way of achieving our goals. So I do believe that New Year resolutions help. But they have to be realistic resolutions, with a well thought out plan, to give you the best chance of success.
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Kapila Rasnayake
Global activist and motivational speaker
I have many plans this year. One thing is to become a writer. I have started to write a book about gender stereotypes of men and women. I am also planning to attempt at being a film director this year. I will start with short films or feature films.
The other big mission for the year is to become a musician. I want to sing. It is also my mission to create awareness on the environment and nature. I am also planning to do different content through my social media, travel the world, maybe Africa.
I plan to become an international consultant. I genuinely believe that having a new year resolution is a map to your upcoming year in motion. It is important to have a dream and work towards it, it gives your life meaning and joy.
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Yureni Noshika
Actress
This year I evolved as a person, all the experiences I had to go through amid the economic crisis and everything else I learned to be grateful for the little things. I am generally a grateful person but I learnt to be grateful in detail, for my health, for the resources I have access to, for the people I have surrounded myself with and moving forward to the new year, I plan to accept the year with hope and be grateful for whatever it may have in store for me.
I plan on surrounding myself with positive people and generally living my life positively and grateful I am confronted with.