Say No To New Year Resolution!

This is my 9th ToastMaster speech. This speech is all about pursuading the audience to try something new.
I gave this speech at a combined toastmaster club meeting where in we had audiences from different companies like Motorola, Novell, Cypress Semiconductor, Dell and Microsoft. Around 40 people had attended the meet. It was a bigger challenge for me, to overcome my nervous and deliver. I was moderated by Ex-Area Governor and the general evalutor was the current Area Governor. So, for me finishing off this speech any form was more than enough :)
As it was the beginning of new year, I chose a topic that would connect well with the audience. I had a different perspective on keeping New Year Resolutions... so this topic :)
Read on....  Do watch the video on youtube... :)

Say No to New Year Resolution

Good Afternoon fellow Toastmasters!

First thing first, wish you all a very Happy New Year.

As a New Year comes up, the idea of New Year resolution stirs up everywhere.

So, how many of you have kept some New Year Resolution…

It has kind of become a vogue keeping New Year resolution, right.

Whenever we greet somebody in the start of New Year, we tend to ask so what is your New Year resolution. Eagerly waiting for our turn to come and share ours.

What are the kind of New Year resolutions these are? Usually it will be “to lose my extra weight”, “to spend more time with my family & friends”, “to stop eating junk food”, etc.

Now my question to all of you, is:

Have you ever made such a resolution?

Did you really achieve your goal?

How many days you remained motivated? One month, two or may be four?

Tradition states that you make resolutions on New Year's Day to become a better person.

Statistics say that by February, you will have broken more than 90 percent of the resolutions you made.

Friends, now that you have guessed, my topic today is about why one should not have a New Year resolution.

On a funny note, as rules are to be broken, so are New Year resolutions. :-)

2-3 years back, I met my friend at the New Year and asked her the obvious question ‘what is your new resolution’. She had a big list and further told that as part of her New Year resolution, she got membership at a high end gym paying Rs.25000. Guess what! When she went, they allured and gave her a discount offer on one year fee only for a couple. So, she and her husband both became members.  When I met her after couple of months, I was actually, checking out if she has reduced, to my dismay there was no change in her.

So, I told her you know what you have sue the gym, they have taken a hefty amount and still you look the same.

I was amazed when she told me she hardly went twice to the gym. Even her husband was no better than her.  She started cribbing how spendthrift she was and all.

I was shocked and I was surprised that people don’t even value for money.

To broaden my perspective to world panorama, few days back, I read in a newspaper, In UK, the amount of damage a New Year resolution causes runs in million pounds!!! How?

The article said that a survey states that, Brits waste 37 million pounds every year on broken resolutions on unused purchases. Some of them included are  for gym membership which they do not use, healthy food which are throw away, new clothes they never wear, forgotten direct debits for membership, unused sports equipment as well as gadgets, magazine subscriptions, computer games. This is happening every year regularly.

If so much money is being wasted across the globe in the name of New Year resolutions, it requires a thought.

So, why do you need a New Year resolution? It’s in types… Just to show off saying like even I keep New Year resolutions… or does it inspire you? Does it make you feel that you are lacking off something or overdoing something? So, you need to get rid of something or get hold of something.

Interestingly, when somebody keeps a New Year resolution, they don’t even think how they are going to pursue it. They don’t choke out a plan or take some time out or basically do the groundwork before they get committed to New Year resolution.

Maybe it’s a wrong word, it usually for fun not for commitment.

So, my suggestion is why we waste our time and money which are precious to us with such erratic act of keeping resolutions.

If we really need to get inspired and be conscious of our life, there are other ways to do it.

My first alternative:

1)      We see a lot of movies… There is a lot of action and drama. Now, lets imagine our lives also like a story. You are the hero of the story. You as a kid went to school , went to college and have a job now, a family, etc… just try to imagine your own real story.

A story involves a person that wants something and is willing to overcome conflict to get it.

So you are the super hero, decide on what kind of story you want to be in your life, and then go for it.

As hero think of something that you want, visualize a ending as climax scene in your mind, create inciting incident that causes turmoil and how to overcome that. It will get in your brain and like a good protagonist in a great movie; you’ll wake every day knowing what you are supposed to do with your time.

You can use these tips to plan your story:

1.      Hero/ You want something.

2.      Envision a climatic scene

a.      Once you have that climactic scene in mind, you’ll know the scenes it takes to get there.  It will get in your brain and like a good protagonist in a great movie; you’ll wake every day knowing what you are supposed to do with your time.

3.      Create an Inciting Incident.

a.      An inciting incident is the event in a movie that causes turmoil in the protagonist life. The protagonist, then, naturally seeks to return to stability. And in order to do that, he HAS to solve his new problem.

Thus, your story takes turns and twists but finally meets the end which is planned.

Sounds interesting, right! You can try it out and feel the experience!

My second alternative:

2)      If you need to have a resolution, then have it in your own birthday. Why? Because your birthday is actually the beginning of a new year of YOUR life so to start on, it is appealing to make a promise to yourself about anything different & good that you want to start.

You can always have your family and friends who were part of your birthday party reminding you of your birthday resolution.

Think about it. Perhaps on your coming birthday you would be making a Birthday Resolution.

Contrarily, if at all you’re taking any resolutions, take it lightly. Resolutions are so quickly broken, because we take ourselves too seriously. When we take ourselves less seriously and make our conditions and surroundings lighter, we will enjoy resolving our resolutions.

Well, all said, I personally feel, to get self-inspired, you first have to be yourself. You have to be Conscious about, what you like and what you don’t like. You will surely feel proud of you when you know that you are good in so many things. And that, which is lacking is only this small thing, you can plan accordingly if at all, you thing that really matters.

So, friends, just write your own creative life story and let each of your birthdays bring freshness in your life and say a big No to resolutions.

Wish you all a great heroic year ahead and  Thank You. :)