71 days to go...

As the year draws to a close, the question comes up for me: shall I, or shall I not? I’m talking about making resolutions for the new year 2007.

I talked about it to some people today, including my physiotherapist Lucy. Most people seem to think that new year resolutions will not get done, so there’s probably little point in doing them. I am sure most of the people saying so have done it many times, but found it difficult to follow through.

I think they are right. It is difficult. But should we give up on the resolutions? Tessa Souter’s book (see yesterday’s post) demonstrates that there are many people who don’t give up on their dreams, even though they went through hard times to make them happen. What struck me in the examples she mentioned (and I only got as far as the third chapter so far), is that all these people could not do it by themselves. They tapped into support. They cried on the shoulders of friends after crashing in on theem at some unexpected hour. They asked, and received, advice. They also benefited a lot from support in many forms.

So what I thought is this. To make our dreams come true, we really need help. Without resolutions, we will certainly not achieve our dreams. And many people give up, often because people close to them give them comments that they experience as discouraging. Tessa mentions many artists who dropped off the bandwagon, and not a small number who took their own lives.

But look at the other side. Over the past few decades, people seem to have become much more clever in using their networks of friends and acquaintances to support their art, their dreams, and their life changes. All sorts of connectivity is now available and it is better used. A new phenomenon in this is the life coach. Tessa mentions several life coaches in her book. They are people you can consult to help you map out the next steps on your path to realize your dreams. And to muster the commitment and courage to take these steps. Even to dust off dreams long forgotten and think about life changes to make them come true after all.

I am actually interested in this idea of life coaching, and I bought four books about it from Amazon last month. In the coming weeks, I am going to review my experience in 2006, and make plans for the next year. This year it is even more special of course, with only 71 days to go to reaching my half century in February. So I will make new year resolutions for 2007, and resolutions for the next phase of my life. To help me in this process, I am going to apply life coaching lessons to myself first. Hopefully, I could help some other people later on. I'm also happy to say that I asked many people for advice this year about the course of my life. It's good to be more connected about such important things. Getting advice and encouragement is priceless.

After I shared some thoughts about Tessa Souter’s book with my physiotherapist Lucy today, she confided that she has a few dreams to dust off, and she’s now thinking of acting on them before year’s end.

Photograph: Art work in Bangkok's Intercontinental Hotel, 19th floor.